Bucket List

The movie "The Bucket List" was based on the premise that two old guys with limited time left on earth decided to do all the things on their life to-do lists before they kicked the proverbial bucket.

Although I am way too young to think much about kicking the bucket, there are times that I hope that I am doing everything I can to live to God's expectations of me. Notice I didn't say "my expectations for myself." That is the trap that we often lay for ourselves; we put too many obligations to do that we forget to check on our spiritual pulse to see if we are still in an active relationship with Jesus. My fear is wasting time on things that seem important for a moment, yet won't make a lasting mark on eternity.

A devotional I read last week said, "Some of us need to be stripped of all doing for Jesus to understand that being in relationship with Him is more valuable and desirable than anything else."

Read that again. I'll wait.

I sometimes worry about that I'm spending so much time just being with Jesus, I'm going to miss out on opportunities to minister. Not true. Another's hope, healing, or salvation does not depend on me ministering, it depends on me remaining close to my Savior and sensitive to the leadings of the Holy Spirit of God.

Confession: I go through phases of being good about being Christ-centric, but then slip back into looking at specifics of how I'm being used. If you've ever done this you may notice the same things I did. I will begin to feel a range of conflicting emotions- overwhelmed, underused, prideful, awed, worried, or nervous.

Let's take some of the pressure off ourselves. If God wants us to just be, not do, we need to be joyful. If He wants us to say good bye to something, we need to be thankful. If He wants us to begin something, we need to be courageous. But overall this, we need to press into Him! Let Jesus be the center and opportunities to do great, lasting things will happen. And when we get to the moment we "kick the bucket," we will be glad that what we did was God-important.

"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven"