A while ago, 2007 to be exact, Hollywood made a movie which starred Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, called The Bucket List. It is a story about two terminally ill men who escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of things they want to accomplish before they die, or kick the bucket, so to speak. It was a good movie because it made people think. It made people think about what they wanted to do before they died and many people determined to start living and doing the things they had put off for so long.
I like the idea of a bucket list. Mine is pretty short right now. I don't want to skydive or climb a mountain or do anything wacky. No, I guess my bucket list is pretty simple.
1. own my own house again
2. live to see my grandchildren
3. see my children married to godly spouses
4. see Scotland
Oh, maybe I could think of more things to put on the list, but to be honest I have already done so many of the things that I said one day I would like to do, that I'm pretty content with how my life has turned out.
When we are young and just starting out we all have dreams of things we would like to do. I did. I can clearly remember when I was fourteen I wanted to be a missionary and I wanted to marry a godly man and I wanted babies and I wanted to travel and I wanted to write a book.
That bucket list is finished. I've done all those things. So, I made a new bucket list. And I think we all do that. If we are living our life and not just letting it pass us by, we continually add to our bucket list as goals on the list are accomplished. The important thing is to LIVE your life. Enjoy the life God has given you, you only have one. Life should be an adventure. That doesn't mean you have to do adventurous things like skydiving or bungee jumping (why would you want to??), but it does mean that you can celebrate the victories and have dreams and goals and set out to see them fulfilled and met.
My husband and I have always had dreams that we talk about when it's just the two of us. Over the almost 30 yrs that we have either been dating or married, some of those dreams have come true and others haven't. That doesn't really matter because the important thing is that we shared our dreams and they were ours. I have been blessed to have someone to share my hopes and dreams. We love playing the 'what if?' or 'someday' game and our bucket list changes as the circumstances in our life change: things drop off the list and others are added.
Maybe you've been letting life pass you by. Don't. LIVE your life. If you haven't dared to dream or played 'someday', maybe you should today. Sit down and ask yourself 'what do I really want out of life?' and then set about seeing it happen. We can get so busy just 'doing' that we fail to enjoy the life the Lord has given to us. We have errands to run and places to go and extra curricular activities for our children that take up our time that we forget about our bucket list. Make up a list, don't worry if its long or short, but make it up. It's not carved in stone, it can change and will. As the years pass the things that are on your list that haven't been accomplished might not seem as important as they once did. That's ok, just put something new, some new dream on the list.
Dream your dreams and live your life and at the end of your life you will be content that you have truly had a rich, full life of adventure.
Post a Comment