Walk into any bookstore today and you will find a mountain of books telling you how to spend the rest of your days in order to find true fulfillment. The message is usually the same,”You were not made to sit in a cubicle. You only have one life to live, so live it!…etc.” These books and magazines don’t stop there; they go on to list out for us the Thousand places to see before you die and the “Top 50 destinations of the year.” We are prodded and lured into building our own list and then tasting the joy of checking them off one by one.But what happens if we actually make it through our list and realize that by devoting our lives to checking off amazing adventures we have missed the point of this life entirely. Sure these things are fun, most distractions are! The ultimate would be able to fulfill God’s will for our lives and check a few things off our list as well. The key though is Prioritization.
Two days after my 25th birthday my brother sent me this email with an example of a proper bucketlist; every dream was in its proper place on the list. I could only emulate what Chris had written and so I asked Chris if I could publish his bucketlist. Thankfully he obliged. As a bonus, I will also include the email to which it was attached.. I hope this blesses you as much as it did me! I have added a few things from my list in red.
Hey bro,
After we talked I typed out my Matt 6:33 list like we talked about. I don’t want to sound like a “blessings” Christian (ie. Do this and this and God will bless you!), but I wanted to try and separate out all the desires in my heart. There are those [desires] that lead to life and there are those that, if they are pursued directly and on their own, lead to death. The ones below the line I want to have an open hand attitude where God can take them away at any moment and I will still praise Him. Does that make sense? I would be curious what your list looks like now? Take some time and think about it.
Chris
After we talked I typed out my Matt 6:33 list like we talked about. I don’t want to sound like a “blessings” Christian (ie. Do this and this and God will bless you!), but I wanted to try and separate out all the desires in my heart. There are those [desires] that lead to life and there are those that, if they are pursued directly and on their own, lead to death. The ones below the line I want to have an open hand attitude where God can take them away at any moment and I will still praise Him. Does that make sense? I would be curious what your list looks like now? Take some time and think about it.
Chris
MATT 6:33 LIST
SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM
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I want to be a prayer warrior. When I tell people I’m prayin for them I really will. Naturally when I have free time in the car or walking with a friend or looking at nature I will begin to pray and thank God out loud. I want to keep a running prayer list of people (like Papa Gene does) of people I am consistently praying for and then able to see God answer prayer.
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I want to be used in radical ways to help the orphan. I want to continue to grow my own family through adoption or foster parenting. I want to be part of church body where more than 50% of the body is directly involved helping the orphan. Whether contributing financially or adopting or bringing in orphans. I want to see Orphan Helpers reach their goal of having at least one Christian involved in the lives of every orphaned, abused, or formerly incarcerated youth in the world.
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I want to see my fighter squadron dominated by a Christian culture. I want to disciple one guy a year through our church’s 10 week book. I want to have a close brotherhood of at least 4 guys in my squadron committed to purity, our marriages, our witness, and to loving and serving all the guys around us.
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I want to be sold out to my local church body. I want to serve the church by encouraging its members when times are difficult, providing for them financially when they are in need, and helping them with their daily tasks when those tasks start to take away from their time with the Lord and his bride. I want my family
to be seen as servant leaders in the church. The family that anyone would call first when they need help or prayer. I want to be generous givers towards the body far surpassing 10% every month in our tithes. I want my families recreational time to be purposeful and spent in large majority with the body with an additional goal of incorporating and exposing non-believers to the love of God through the church. -
I want to love the Word more and more every day. I want to crave reading it in the mornings, with my family in the evenings, and with my kids when they go to bed. I want to memorize enough scripture that it would take 30 minutes to recite my favorite passages from memory. I want to be so knowledgeable about God’s Word that I incorporate its wisdom into my everyday conversations.
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I want my wife and my kids to respect me and love spending time with me because I am encouragement and inspiration to them. I want my faith in God to be magnetic that my family would love to talk about the kingdom and not be wierded out by it or disgusted by my repetitiveness. I want to praise God when I see them try and imitate generosity, compassion, and excitement about the Gospel.
AND ALL THINGS WILL BE ADDED…
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- I want to live in foreign countries and speak 5 languages fluently. I am going to ‘one up’ Chris here and say I want to learn 5 languages fluently as well as their respective sign languages, haha j/k. I want to have friends in many cultures and be able to experience and understand those cultures more deeply than any tourist. I want to work in an international capacity… potentially diplomatic.
- I want to have substantial passive income of at least $5000 per month so that I can provide for my family, have the freedom to use my free time as I wish, and never be so constrained that I can’t be generous and help someone else. I want to make successful business decisions both in my stock market investing for kids college and my retirement, but also in real estate, and business ventures.
- I want to stay in shape, be able to run 1.5miles in less than 10min until I am 50. I want to be able to snow ski until I am 80. I want to enjoy outdoor activities with my wife and kids. I want to be a habitual walker.
- I want to raise my kids in a very urban setting where I can expose them to the arts, museums, music, and wide variety of international cultures living in close proximity to one another. I want to teach my kids at 2 languages by the time they leave the house.
- I want to have an amazing marriage with my wife. I want people to think we are crazy because we are still crazy in love even in our old age. I want to enjoy talking and spending time with her more than anyone else.
- I want to be able to continue to have time to carve and be expressive in some type of art form.
- I want to be a great reader of books.
- I want to walk on the moon by the time I’m 45. If I make it to the moon before I die I will still be happy, I just prefer to do it by the age of 45 so that I can win a bet that I have with two of my friends..
- I want to surf a wave big enough that I can stand up in the tube.
- I want to skydive in a batsuit and maybe if I do that enough times to know what I am doing in the air, I want to base jump from a cliff in Norway.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Inspired
This is a very good “bucket list”. Matthew 6:33 is a good benchmark for my goals. I am going over my short and long term goals and I will use the verse to evaluate what I have written. I like what you said about having a brotherhood in your workplace committed to purity and their marriage. I also want to expand my foreign language and cultural knowledge. Traveling to Europe this past month reminded me how rewarding it is to speak another language and live in a different culture.