Una Vida

"Una Vida" opens on a door slamming and a last conversation nobody realized was the last one: "Cómo iba a saber, cuándo la puerta tiró, que lo último que habló fue su último respirar" ("how was I to know, when the door slammed, that the last thing spoken was their last breath"). Danny Gokey builds the song around that kind of sudden, unannounced ending rather than a generic meditation on mortality.

The chorus turns that shock into a plea: "sólo tenemos una vida, para vivir, amar y ser feliz" (only one life, to live, love, and be happy). It's close to the urgency of James 4:14 — life as vapor, here and gone before anyone agrees to the terms — and Psalm 90:12's request to be taught to number our days well, precisely because no one is guaranteed more of them.

A later verse widens the grief outward, naming "tragedia y violencia" that leaves "el pueblo" crying out that it shouldn't be possible. Rather than offering an easy resolution, the song repeats its refrain as the only steady ground left: "la vida es muy corta, no esperes más" (life is too short, don't wait any longer) — Ecclesiastes 9:10's instruction to do what's in your hand now, because later isn't promised.