Recently I saw the movie “The Bucket List,” with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It was an interesting movie dealing with the notion of writing down the things you want to accomplish in life before you “kick the bucket.” The movie touched on just about every belief system you can imagine; the underlying idea being pushed was that faith is what gets you through life.

 
The questions were, “Have you had joy in your life”? “Have you brought joy to others”? These questions are New Age/Eastern Mysticism-type questions. This movie got me thinking about us – not just those who have cancer or some other terminal disease and know better than most that their lives will end soon – but all of us since we all will eventually face death. All of us will face the same end due to the curse that came upon our father Adam as a result of the fall in the Garden of Eden. It has been jokingly said that the mortality rate for human beings is 100%! We will all die someday, unless Jesus returns first.
 
So what is our “bucket list”? What is it in this life that we want to accomplish or do before we leave it? It’s a tough question; it tears away any façade or mask that we may have and reveals what is really important to us. You see, if we live our lives without much regard for our Creator or his will for us, then our lists will reveal very selfishly-oriented things. We will desire to do or see or experience those things which we place value on as a people who stand alone. We may or may not accomplish all the things on our lists, and we may even take credit for the accomplishments, and we may blame others, or ill fate, for the lack of if we do not do all that we planned.
 
But if we are the children of God, having been adopted into his family through the shed blood of his One and Only Son, Jesus, then our “bucket list” should look much different. Paul tells us:
 
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (I Corinthians 6:19-20).
 
So not just our bodies, but our whole lives belong to him – so I it makes sense to say that our “bucket list” should match his “bucket list” for us.
 
But here is the trouble: We try to accomplish things with our old “bucket list,” items that are contrary to God’s “bucket list” for us.  When the two conflict, there is turmoil, because we really do know what we should be doing and that we are not doing it, or we know that what we are doing is contrary to the wishes of the One who bought us.
 
Doing the things on God’s “bucket list” for us is not just a matter of looking at the list and plodding through them one-by-one. What drudgery! After a while we will despair and give up and even hate the list and the Giver of it. We must first give up on our own “bucket list” and consider him who has bought us. With such a display of love, can we not help but love him back and desire to please him? Then we will not only give up our own list, but actually disdain it and push it away, even when it keeps making its presence known to us.
 
We will seek to put it away so that we can do what God has for us on His “bucket list.” The amazing thing is that as we do the things on God’s “bucket list” for us, we will find that we want to do so more and more; and that he, being pleased with our desires, will bless us in ways we could never have imagined or experienced before.
 
And here is a thought to finish with. Ecclesiastes 8:7 tells us, “Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come?” God alone knows the future; we do not know how much time we have to accomplish the things God desires us to do. We need to remind ourselves of God loves for us, loving him back, and then doing the things he has for us to do. It takes the sacrifice of our own “bucket lists” and the willing embracing of his “bucket list.”
 
What a privilege to serve the Creator-Savior! What we do in obedience to his will brings with it eternal blessings. Let us not sacrifice them for temporal baubles that will perish like ice cream that melts quickly on a hot summer day. Let us “store up for ourselves treasures in heaven!”
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Rev. Thomas Joseph is the pastor of Lake Crest Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Ala.