You Only Live Once

You Only Live Once. YOLO. The first time I heard some one say “YOLO” (and someone else explained it for me), I thought it was pretty funny and it became a joke between friends. Obviously we didn’t make it up, but its just something we say, as well as a lot of people on campus. 

Lately, I’ve seen posts where people say that they are sick of hearing about it and that its stupid, but what surprised me a little was that there are Christians who say that YOLO doesn’t support their views of Christianity.

Now hold on for a second and back up. 

I can understand how people think this doesn’t mesh with their religious views. Some see it as an excuse to do anything crazy, and as Christians we have eternal life in Heaven so we technically do live more than just once. I get that, but it seems a bit silly to say that if you ask me and here’s why:

First off, if we’re taking this literally, we do in fact live in these specific bodies once. Although we do go to heaven and live with our Father for eternity, as far as I know, that life is a bit different. But since we do only live once in these bodies, shouldn’t we kind of take on the idea of YOLO as Christians? If we only live once on this Earth, we only have one chance to get it right before we go to to Heaven or Hell. If this is my only life, I don’t want to let opportunities to further the Kingdom of God slip by. In a way (and maybe this is my own spaghetti-brained way of thinking), Christians can use YOLO as a little encouragement to get this thing we call Life right and try to embrace the crazy risks we might not normally take in our faith.

You don’t have to agree with me, but just because YOLO is one of those things that can be abused doesn’t mean it has to be or always is. I’m not going to try and argue with people on this, it isn’t a crucial aspect of my faith but I just thought I’d give my thoughts on it since everyone else is giving theirs. Also, there is homework that needs to be done so naturally this is the best time to blog.

In the end, it’s a silly saying and if it really irritates you, no worries, YOLO will die out like Planking and Pet Rocks. And if it doesn’t, well, You Only Live Once. (<—courtesy of my lovely roomies 🙂 )

Love,

Rebekah