Bucket Lists

What’s on your bucket list?  Sky-diving?  International travel?  Learning a foreign language?  It seems we all have at least one more thing we want to do before our time on earth is over.  Some of us purposefully have a long list, somehow hoping it’ll keep us here a bit longer.  We try to push death off as long as possible, fearing this final enemy.

But not Paul.  He wasn’t morbid, but was fully aware of his own mortality as he wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1:21-24).  Here’s Paul saying, “I’m chained and imprisoned.  I’ve watched other people who believe in God be brutally murdered for their faith and I know the same might happen to me.  In fact, I would even welcome death because then I get to be with my best friend, Jesus.  But, if I die, I won’t be here anymore.  I won’t be able to continue in my hard work of telling as many people as I can about the freedom found in Christ.”

It’s a bucket list that makes me reevaluate mine.  In fact, it causes me to look at all of my priorities again.  Do I show such eagerness to live for Christ?  Am I excited to face suffering, abuse and hardship for the sake of glorifying God?  Or do I profess a faith in God that will only remain steadfast as long as He amply provides for me and protects me from all harms? 

Maybe its time we start to live like we’re dying.