“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is.” Psalm 39:4-5
God used a soup commercial to change my life.
I was in high school and somehow dating an attractive young lady who should have been well out of my league. I did everything I could to hold on to her. It wasn’t so much her company that I valued as the prestige her company afforded me. She was a jewel in an otherwise lusterless social crown.
She was even more appearance-conscious than I was. For this reason, she did not like my friends. They were nerds. Why she could accept my nerdiness and not theirs, I do not know, but that's the way it was. As we continued to date, I spent more time with her and less with them. This was a big mistake because my friends brought me a lot more happiness than she did. I felt terrible always begging out of their get-togethers. I disliked myself for putting appearances over substance.
My internal conflict came to a head one afternoon when I was home alone. The phone rang. My friend said everyone was going to his house to play Risk, the classic board game of world domination. Knowing my girlfriend wouldn’t like me choosing them over her, I said no—again. I hung up the phone and immediately felt awful. I lay on the couch and turned on the TV.
That’s when the soup commercial aired. I had never seen it before, and I have never been able to find it since. If it was indeed produced by marketers for Campbell’s (and not, as I’ve come to suspect, my guardian angel), it was a rather bald attempt to seduce a younger demographic. It was filmed more like an MTV music video than a typical soup commercial with a Grandmother serving up a steamy bowl of chicken noodle. It featured teenagers dancing and bopping around, all jazzed up about soup, while they lip-synced to an upbeat bubble-gum pop song.
I will always remember the melody because those kids sang it approximately 100 times in a commercial that lasted for what felt like 20 minutes. After some verses about soup’s healthiness, they sang, “You only get one life to live! Live it right!”"
It was an epiphany. The synergy between that commercial, those lyrics, my internal conflict, and God working to turn me into the individual He wanted me to be opened my eyes to the truth: I did only have one life to live. I did need to live it right. And while I was wholly unconvinced that soup would be able to give me what I needed to thrive, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the truth that good decisions make all the difference in the course of our lives.
God most certainly works in mysterious ways to show us the Way. The loss of my mother a few years earlier had introduced to me the scarcity and significance of time, and now a song in a soup commercial was driving it through my heart. I was only afforded one life. I would not get another. High school was supposedly the best years of our lives, and its days were quickly evaporating. Why was I squandering precious time on dumb idols like Prestige and Appearance when I could be using it on positive experiences and good relationships? If I messed these years up, I would not get another opportunity. Life permits us no rewinds or do-overs. Once a day is over, it cannot be exchanged. The hourglass sand falls in one direction; it cannot be inverted.
I turned off the television, picked up the phone, called my girlfriend, and told her it was over. That news did not seem to affect her one way or another, but it exhilarated me. I was liberated—not from her; from myself. Defying my conscience to gain the admiration of others was foolish and wasteful. Now I was emboldened to live my life the way God wanted me to, free from regrets. I didn’t care anymore how others thought it looked.
As soon as I hung up the phone, I drove to my friend's house. I won the game of Risk that night and never looked back. In teaching, in relationships, and in all of my decisions, I would be guided by the principle highlighted in Psalm 39:4-5: “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is.”
Recommended Reading
A soup commercial wasn’t the only thing that opened my eyes to the significance of time. Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, which we read in my junior English class, had a lot to do with it, too. Get it at your local library or read it online here.
Thank you for reading!
December is my favorite month because of Christmas. It was a wonderful holiday this year being with my family and youth group, and, of course, celebrating the birth of Christ. I’m already looking forward to next year!