Shykeem Pitts was a 21-year-old, promising ex-high school football star. He was full of potential and had high hopes for a stellar collegiate career followed by a very profitable and successful stint in the NFL. All of those hopes and plans came to a screeching halt with an assassin’s bullet while he was attending one of those wild “Chunky Sunday” block parties on Sept. 28 in Haines City, Fl.

Last year, ESPN reported that Pitts had accepted a scholarship to play football for Marshall University in West Virginia after also being recruited by Tennessee. He played quarterback, wide receiver and defensive back at Ridge Community High School in Polk County, Florida.

Chunky Sunday block parties, which feature women “twerking” or actively shaking their rear ends to the pulsating beats of down south hip hop, are infamous across the state of Florida.

In the late 1990s, Chunky Sunday parties drew as many as 6,000 people in St. Petersburg and Tampa, according to the Tampa Bay Times. However, the parties have been known to end in gunfire and brawls.

It is said that life is like a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish but you can only spend it once.

For Shykeem Pitts, he spent it watching a woman “drop it like it’s hot” one moment and then gasping for air the next.

While famous magician Harry Houdini made a bold claim that he would one day perform the ultimate escape trick and free himself from the clutches of death, it is still universally accepted that we will pass this way but once. We will never have another chance to make this first impression.

Everywhere around us there are constant reminders that we have only one shot at this thing called life. We cannot afford to be lackadaisical; we must redeem the time for the days are evil, short and fleeting.  There is a persistent illusion, influenced by the demons of hell, that we can be cavalier with time and opportunity as they are abundant.

This world is not built around second chances. Here is a thought provoking question. Even though Peter asked Jesus about forgiving his brother seven times and was rebuked—how many people have you forgiven more than once?

In the 2008 Olympics, Lolo Jones was on the way to victory when she tripped over a hurdle just before the finish line. She lost and that coveted gold medal is still out of reach.

Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins took his team to the Super Bowl in 1984. In his mind, he thought that he would achieve that pinnacle again and again. After losing, he never returned and retired without the ring - the ultimate mark of a champion.

In this world, we are not very forgiving of errors; it is usually a matter of one and done. Nevertheless, out of supreme irony and hypocrisy, we continue to demand and expect from others that which we are not willing to give. It is truly said that man gets and forgets while God gives and forgives.

I hasten to remind you.

This is not a dress rehearsal for a play. The “instant replay” or the television “re-run” is man’s modern invention for there is no corresponding or similar action in nature.

Frankenstein is a literary creation of Mary Shelley. Organ transplants are a risky undertaking and there are only one of each of the three organs that are essential for our body to function and exist - one brain, one heart and one liver. Replacements, which are few and far between, are not always a “slam dunk.”

Reincarnation is a lie promoted by con men, charlatans, hucksters and ridiculed by comedians. The latter hoot, “if you believe so strongly in reincarnation, why not make a will and leave everything to yourself.”

There is no “mic” check for the sound system of your life.

There is only one ride on the merry go round.

Despite the best and ongoing efforts of scientists, we have discovered that there is only one earth, sun and moon capable of supporting our kind of existence.

There is one God, one Savior and one way to salvation and redemption.

The original intent for the family was one husband or one wife for every human being because when joined together they became one flesh, never to be separated.

There is only one direction - forward - to the same destination: death. It is appointed unto man once to die and after that comes the judgment. There is no such thing as going backward to correct or adjust anything.

There was only one crucifixion which forces us to make that one decision between heaven and  hell.

We really cannot afford to make any mistakes. Life dictates that we perform all that we are destined to do within a small window of time.

That is why you must work while it is yet day for the long night is looming where and when no man can work.

Today, if you hear His voice, you must not harden your heart and become obstinate and unrepentant.