My Bucket List is Complete .... or is it?

When I went to Israel a few years ago, my Bucket List was complete. Sure I'll take on more adventures, but I don't have to. I am good to GO! No longer have a need for a bucket!

According to the 2007 movie “The Bucket List” where Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson (both of whose characters are dying of cancer) create a bucket list of things to do before they die – and then they actually do them. But, historians say that it dates to the Middle Ages when a method of execution involved the victim standing on a bucket with a noose tied around their necks. The bucket would then be kicked away, and good-bye to the victim. It is easy to see how the term could have been adapted to do those things that you would want to do today if you thought it possible that you might die tomorrow.

Another way to look at "bucket lists", is making a list of goals that we hope to accomplish before "heaven" calls our names. My husband was a relentless goal setter -- not just those he hoped to accomplish before he "went home", but before the year ended. So much so, that he made a Vision Board each year, casting the vision for what we were believing to accomplish in that year. Habakkuk 2:2 says "Write the vision, make it plain so that he who reads it can run with it." I still have a Vision Board that Ron not only wrote out the vision, but he made it plain by attaching photos of what he was believing for.

Alexia, my granddaughter and I had already been on a shopping spree before her birthday yesterday. I bought her birthday gift then, but since her parents are out of town, yesterday morning, I took a Chick-fil-A breakfast to her and a couple other gifts. She had told me that, when she moves out on her own, she wants to get a cat. So, to drive that vision home for her, I bought a 2021 calendar full of pictures of cats. AND, I bought her a furry little electronic, meowing cat. “Write the vision and make it plain – OR, show up with visuals that define it.

Another way to look at "bucket lists", is making a list of goals that we hope to accomplish before "heaven" calls our names. My husband was a relentless goal setter -- not just those he hoped to accomplish before he "went home", but before the year ended. So much so, that he made a Vision Board each year, casting the vision for what we were believing to accomplish in that year. Habakkuk 2:2 says "Write the vision, make it plain so that he who reads it can run with it." I still have a Vision Board that Ron not only wrote out the vision, but he made it plain by attaching photos of what he was believing for.

Alexia, my granddaughter and I had already been on a shopping spree before her birthday yesterday. I bought her birthday gifts then, but since her parents are out of town, yesterday morning, I took a Chick-fil-A breakfast to her and a couple other gifts. She had told me that, when she moves out on her own, she wants to get a cat. So, to drive that vision home for her, I bought a 2021 calendar full of pictures of cats. AND, I bought her a furry little electronic, meowing cat. “Write the vision and make it plain – OR, show up with visuals that define it.

Though my husband made plans and goals, not everything came to pass. But that's when, those of us who trust in God and His best "bucket list" for our lives, defer to "His ways that are higher than our ways." (Isaiah 55:9)

Think about Mary, Jesus' Mother. She must have had a detailed “bucket list” for her upcoming marriage to Joseph. She probably dreamed one day she would have a baby – maybe even calling him Joseph Junior. But all those dreams still had to make way for God's "bucket list". Mary's greatest accomplishment happened when she put aside her own goals and said "YES" to whatever God's bucket list had on it. Mary shows us that saying "yes" to God's plan for our lives can be far more rewarding than any list we could ever come up with.

We should continue to set goals, cast vision, dream big dreams, live with audacious and unwavering faith, but, let's stay open to God's Master Plan for our lives and be willing to trade in our bucket list for His. The best news is....His list comes with great rewards -- peace, joy, happiness AND life everlasting, as well as GREAT adventures and excitement of having a really awesome relationship with Almighty God.

It Doesn't Have to Be My Way

Remember Frank Sinatra singing “I did it my way”? The song was about a man fondly looking back on a life lived on his own terms. But, is that the way WE want to live?

I heard a talk where the speaker handed out empty toilet paper rolls to each of us to make her point. She asked: “Have you ever had a dispute with your husband about the RIGHT way to hang a toilet paper roll? And, if you weren’t in agreement, did you correct it each time that he’d put it in different from the way you thought it should be? Did it frustrate you because it just wasn’t right or it just wasn't YOUR WAY? She said God had been speaking to her about having to have it HER WAY, so, on purpose, she has been leaving it the way her husband put it on. She realized “It doesn’t have to be MY WAY all the time. She instructed us to write on our rolls…. “It doesn’t have to be MY WAY!”

What a powerful object lesson! The point, well taken. It's such an erroneous belief that OUR WAY is the best way of doing things and then insisting others agree with us. There are those who seem to have taken a life course called, “How to Be Absolutely Sure of Everything”! And, honestly, in the light of eternity and what matters most, does it really matter? Wanting and insisting on getting our way is a set up for unhappiness and a lot of disagreements with others. We rationalize that THEY are the one that needs to change.

It’s part of our human nature to want to have our way. We all have a touch of the need to be right. We all have areas where we believe that we know better than others. As we learn to let go of the need to have it OUR WAY, the more energy we’ll have to spend on things that REALLY ARE important.

It’s time to ask ourselves, “Do I want to be right or do I want to be happy? Do I want to get my way, or do I want to feel a closeness with others?” Who wants to be a know-it-all, when there’s only one KNOW-IT-ALL? He is Father God. Instead of singing Frank’s “I DID IT MY WAY”, why not be singing…. “I did it God’s way!” And when we do it God's way.....in humility and love.....it WILL BE His way....and the BEST WAY! But, just thought I'd add a photo of the RIGHT WAY of hanging toilet paper!

"He has shown you, oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

"Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in HIS WAYS." Psalm 128:1