If Tomorrow Never Comes

I wrote this more than 20 years ago and it’s as true now as it was then.

Valentine’s Day. The American Heart Association has chosen this time of year to emphasize heart disease and its prevention. I suppose they’re capitalizing on the symbol of this occasion.

That’s all well and good, and it’s important. But today I want us to consider another type of heart trouble. I want us to think a minute about the uncertainty of life – about its frailty and about what really matters.

Life is uncertain. Things happen. Lives are unexpectedly changed or ended. And it happens suddenly.

In this short space, I can’t pretend to summarize each and every cosmic truth, but I can share a thought that has meaning for each of us. It came to me as so many other significant insights have – the same way I’m sure they frequently come to you – when I least expected it.

In this particular instance, it was late at night and I was driving down a lonely highway. I had “appropriated” one of my eldest daughter’s Garth Brooks CDs and pushed the “play” button. As Garth began to sing one of his songs, I was moved by the beautiful music. But more than that, I was struck by the lyrics. That’s what I want to share with you today.

The theme is not new, but his words capture the very heart of the matter, and speak to each and every one of our relationships – fathers, daughters, brothers, friends. As you read this, I’m sure someone will come to your mind – maybe several people.

I know who comes to my mind. This is for Barbara, my wife.

“Sometimes late at night

I lie awake and watch her sleeping

She’s lost in peaceful dreams

So I turn out the light and lie there in the dark

And the thought crosses my mind

If I never wake up in the morning

Would she ever doubt, the way I feel

About her in my heart?

If tomorrow never comes,

Will she know how much I loved her

Did I try in every way to show here every day

That she’s my only one?

And if my time on earth were through

And she must face the world without me

Is the love I gave her in the past

Gonna be enough to last

If tomorrow never comes?

Cause I’ve lost loved ones in my life

Who never knew how much I loved them

Now I live with the regret

That my true feelings for them never were revealed

So I made a promise to myself

To say each day how much she means to me

And the avoid the circumstance

Where there is no second change

To tell her how I feel.

Cause if tomorrow never comes

Will she know how much I loved here

Did I try in every way to show her every day

That she’s my only one

And if my time on earth were through

And she must face this world without me

Is the love I gave her in the past

Gonna be enough to last

If tomorrow never comes?

So tell that some someone that you love…

Just what you’re thinking of…

If tomorrow never comes.”