Bucket List

 

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.”    But behold, this also was vanity. Ecclesiastes 2:1

 

There are lots of things I would enjoy doing in life, but nothing I’ve thought I didn’t want to die without doing.  Consequently, I have always thought I didn’t need a bucket list.

I recently talked to my sister about an upcoming vacation. She has rented a house on the beach.  Not “at” the beach – “on” the beach. She will be able, for one week of her life, to step off a porch onto the beach of the Atlantic Ocean.

I have always wanted to rent a house on the beach. They are expensive and I am cheap. I have never done it, but now I think I might, sometime before I die.  Apparently, I have started a bucket list. I haven’t thought much about a bucket list. I’ve thought about how to live as long as I can, as well as can, in service of the Lord. I like to say that I want to die with my boots on. I want those boots to be muddy and worn from how much use they get.

But, a break, a little vacation, is a worthy thing.

Today, I was studying what the Bible says about the death penalty as part of a course I am taking on Biblical law. It’s (sadly) interesting to think about how far we have come from God’s Laws about penalties for sin, but even more interesting to see how the thinking of man has changed over time in how highly we value life. We don’t want the death penalty for anyone.

We have bucket lists because we value what the world has to offer. This is not necessarily a bad thing. God has made it all, and it is for us and our pleasure. We can and should enjoy all of creation.

God has also given us work to do, but my bucket list doesn’t have any jobs on it. Today, as I was contemplating how far we have come from God’s Word, I wondered if there should be works on that bucket list, or at least an intention to do what God calls me to do, not just what I want to do.

Since I am starting one, I would love to cross off one item from my bucket list every year from now until the Lord takes me home. I think, and I pray, that He has more in mind for me than an annual vacation.

I was “curious” about the Law when I started to study “The Institutes of Biblical Law.” I did not know how much I did not know and how many different ways I would be thinking about each of the Ten Commandments. (That the death penalty would lead me to think about my bucket list!)

Now, I have a second item on that list. I want to finish the course – only about 140 weeks to go! I pray that I don’t just study it, but that I will do what it says (James 1:22).

Consider this: What do our bucket lists reveal about our priorities?