You’ve probably never heard of Samuel Timothy Smith.  But there’s a story about Tim Smith that I think you’ll find interesting.

An only child, Tim was eleven years old when his parents divorced.  When Christmas rolled around a few months later, Tim decided to conduct a search of his mother’s closet while she is at work to see if he can find any Christmas presents she might have hidden. As Tim rummages through his mom’s closet, he stumbles on his own birth certificate.  But something is not right.  His last name on the certificate is not “Smith;” it’s McGraw.   Perplexed, Tim calls his mom at work, and she immediately comes home. They drive around for a long time and she explains everything to young Tim.

Tim’s father was “Tug" McGraw.  He was a Major League pitcher who played for both the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies.  Early in his career, Tug played for the Jacksonville Suns, a minor league club. There he met 18-year-old Betty Dagostino, a senior in high school. They had a Bull Durham romance and Betty became pregnant with Tim.

Tug, unaware that Betty is expecting, leaves town. Betty’s parents decide to send her to Louisiana to live with relatives and have the baby.  When Tim is seven months old, Betty marries Horace Smith.  She tells Tim that this man is his father. 

Interestingly, Tim was a baseball fan and though he didn’t know Tug McGraw was his father, he had Tug's baseball card up on his bedroom wall. His mother takes Tim to meet Tug, but Tug denies being Tim's father.  For several years, Tim sends Tug unanswered letters. Finally, Tim becomes fed up with his dad. He and his mom are dirt poor, so he asks his dad to chip in for his college tuition. Tug agrees on one
condition–neither Tim nor Betty is to ever contact him again.

But young Tim asks for one last meeting with his dad.  When Tug sees his grown son, and realizes how much Tim looks like him at that age, he acknowledges he’s Tim’s dad.  He drops the conditions and the pair begins to finally forge a father-son relationship.

In 2004, Tug McGraw died of brain cancer.  He spent his last days in the guest cabin on Tim’s Tennessee farm.  Later that year, Tim McGraw released his wildly popular album, Live Like You Were Dying. It was the No. 1 hit for 10 weeks. Though the album wasn't planned as a tribute to his father, Tug, Tim McGraw confessed that it helped him deal with his father’s tragic death.

Live like you are dying. We’re all dying, we just don’t know when. The question is: Will we live before we die? That’s what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 9:1-10. God does not want us to merely get through this life.  He designed us to live, to really live.

Jesus summed up his mission to earth with these famous words: “I have come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). That’s what the ninth chapter of Ecclesiastes is about—how to
really live.