Last week one of our senior adults shared with the congregation that it was on her “bucket list” to encourage the church with what she had upon her heart for many weeks. I was thrilled at her accomplishment of this goal, as she had something meaningful to say, and it was edifying. This was a big deal for her, as it is for most people, to speak before a crowd. The introductions to the thoughts at hand were laid before us under the guise of a need in her life to honor God in this manner. These encouragements started my contemplation, “What should a Christian’s bucket list look like”, and “What should mine look like”.
Bucket lists are those lists of things you want to do before you die. This goal chart therefore says a lot about what a person values. It is quite easy to decipher the types of priorities that someone has in these lists. Sadly enough, bucket lists are many times often about a personal sense of accomplishment. Some have vast ranges. Many list out things solely based upon the advice or sensationalism that others have told of achieving. For example, some desire to go parachuting out of an airplane or bungee jumping to experience “the rush”. Years ago these activities would have been a consideration for me. But as I get closer to my own bucket I realize that I do not want to live with the sustained stresses that such athletic endeavors would wreck upon my frame.
Many have given their lives in pursuit of immortality as their bucket list. Throughout fame and history, many have expended themselves only to be forgotten. One notable “bucket list” of life is revealed that Caesar wept in his thirties when he realize that Alexander the great had accomplished so much more by age twenty five. We all want to leave some sort of legacy, to live a life of worth.
This leads me to consider my bucket, or better put my standing before God. I have been contemplating what my days will have to show as their result. I have had many adventures, experiences, and moments of grandeur. But putting this in perspective, truly the only things of value in this life are those actions of exalting God. Our purpose in existence is simple, we are created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. All else is really idolatry. So thusly the Christian has a purpose and a direction for their list. The list is not about us but about the Gospel. Our lives are to be sharing the Gospel in all matters.
Therefore, here in a mashed up way is my personal God oriented Gospel spreading pursuit of joy in Him Bucket List.
- To finish well and with more zeal and love than when I started this Christian journey. That I may hear “Well don thou good and faithful servant”.
- To see revival in our world where God is worshipped in spirit and in truth in such a way that no man can take credit for what is to be an undeniable work of the Holy Spirit.
- To produce a sustaining generation in my family for the glory of God.
- To start a work in an unreached people group.
- To establish a new church.
- To establish a church in a foreign land.
- To see a Muslim to faith and through discipleship.
- To see a Mormon to faith and through discipleship.
- To see a Hindu to faith and through discipleship.
- To see an atheist to faith and through discipleship.
- To see a Buddhist to faith and through discipleship
- To arrive at a mind that espouses more scriptural wisdom than my own opinion.
- To be a friend of sinners.
- To see that whatever assignment God has me in I am leading people to a jubilant love and commitment to Christ.
- To persevere.
- To live a life that bears the fruits of the spirit and has crucified the flesh.
- To live unashamed of the gospel.
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