The "New" Bucket List

The “New” Bucket List

What is a “Bucket List?”  It’s the list of life goals to be accomplished by an individual before they “kick the bucket”, or to put it more bluntly, before they stop breathing…permanently.  The point of a bucket list is to write out all of the numerous and usually awesome or crazy things that you want to complete before the end of life strikes.  Recently, I have noticed people posting a lot of different things that they would like to add to their bucket list.  

Things such as:

• Swim with dolphins
• Go sky diving
• Climb Mt Killimonjaro
• Go scuba diving
• Meet someone famous

(Credit Unknown)

          If I myself were to creative such a bucket list, I would have quite a good start on the kinds of things typically found on these lists.  For example, things that I could check off my bucket list that I have already done in my life are:

• Watch fireworks over the Atlantic ocean
• Have a raccoon and a fawn as pets
• Travel to Mexico and play in the Pacific Ocean
• Spend two months in the Alaska wilderness
• Drive through the deep jungles of Tanzania in knee deep mud
• Visit more than half the states in the US
• See the famous lakes and mountains of Canada
• Own my own small business
• Visit down town New York multiple times
• Ride in a 3 seat airplane in dangerous wind conditions (Now THAT was FUN!)
• Stay overnight in an ancient hotel in Ethiopia

          …… Quite honestly, my completed bucket list could go on and on and if I look at that list, I have done a lot of really awesome things for someone my age.  My question is… What’s the point?  Do I really want to be remembered for doing all of those things?  And when it’s all said and done, how long do those around me even remember the cool things that I’ve bragged about?  I don’t think my family even remembers half of them!
Even more importantly, did any of those things in themselves really make a difference in anyone else’s life?  

          There’s nothing wrong with wanting to travel and do neat activities. ( I would still someday like to fly in a helicopter!) The problem comes when that becomes our ‘life’ focus.  Creating the typical bucket list involves focusing on ‘self’ and what ‘I’ want to do.  It focuses on material possessions, money, travel, pleasure - all things that when life is over, really don’t amount to anything at all.

          So what does a good bucket list consist of?  

          A good bucket list is a life focused on others, and above all, a life that is focused on Christ.  

          How about creating a “New” Bucket List with me?  A list that dramatically changes lives and hearts in a positive way, instead of dying and leaving behind sky high credit card debts from all the ‘cool’ things that were accomplished.

A few new bucket list ideas:

• Lead a dying person to the Lord
• Change a woman’s mind about aborting her baby and then watch the child that was saved grow into a young man/woman. 
• Personally give away 1000 Bibles (One at a time) and share with individuals how to practically study it.
• Be part of bringing dramatic life change to someone on the edge of committing suicide
• Inspire purity, joy, perseverance and faithfulness to all who know me
• Write a life impacting book
• Provide a shelter and necessities for someone in need
• Brighten the day of every cashier in every store that I enter
• Win my family members to the Lord by the way I chose to live my life
• (And the very last thing on my bucket list is:)  Lay my life down to save someone else

"Little kids that we distributed shoes to in Tanzania"

          Some people might look at this list as a way to make sure that people remember them after they die, but that is not the point at all.  
          If a rock is thrown into a lake, it sinks to the bottom and is forgotten, but the waves that it leaves behind will reach more water than the rock could have ever touched.  That is what I want for my own life.  If I die and am remembered no longer, I’m fine with that.  The goal is not to be remembered but to make waves that will reach far beyond into lives that I could have never touched in my lifetime.  The goal of this kind of bucket list is not even to make a ‘list’ at all.  The goal is to get our eyes off of making a foolish, self-centered list and to live a lifestyle that will change our world and bring glory to the one true Savior, Jesus Christ.  

"A little girl with new shoes in East Africa"