I was asked to create a bucket list for an activity in one of classes this semester. For those of you that don't know, a bucket list or life list is a list of things that you wish to do before you die or things that you really want out of life. Your list is supposed to contain things that you haven't done yet. In fall 2009, I was so blessed to be able to spend an entire semester in Italy...that semester I was able to cross a ton of goals/desires off my list: travel abroad, see the Eiffel Tower, go to Rome, along with about a hundred other seriously amazing things.
(this gave me a chance to post some old Europe pictures too :) )
inside the Colosseum in Rome
looking out on Florence (favorite city in Europe!)
a view of Big Ben, the Parliament building, and the Thames River from the London Eye
a view of the Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc de Triomphe
a castle in Dublin
Okkkk....back to my actual post.
Just this week when I began to make my first real bucket list, I started thinking and realized most of my goals and desires still had to do with traveling and seeing the world. For example: drive a car in Ireland, see the pyramids and ride a camel in Egypt, visit the Grand Canyon, go skiing in Colorado, go on a European cruise, visit all fifty states in the US and most of the countries in Europe, and on and on and on. I reaaaally love to travel!
Even though travel made up quite a large portion of my list, I still have a lot of other desires and goals that made the list. Some of these are the desires that are the absolute most meaningful to me: to love Jesus with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, baptize someone, disciple someone, marry a mighty man of God, be a mom, serve in an orphanage, and be a foster parent.
Although the first few things on my list were to baptize and disciple someone and the most important was to love Jesus with my whole heart, the Lord really convicted me while I was compiling my list. Do I really have more desires on my list that don't point to Jesus than do point to Him? Why is it that I am more fascinated by traveling and seeing creation than I am fascinated by Creator God Himself? This lesson is exactly what the Lord has been speaking to me for the past few weeks...making Him my primary aim and goal in life. I love how He uses my classes at school to teach me more about Him and to draw me closer.
While the absolute first desire in my heart and on my list is to know and be known by Jesus and to love Him with everything that's within me, I am still upset at how much time, thought, attention, and fascination I have with other desires...travel and my future, for example. I want nothing, nothing, nothing to even begin to compare to knowing and loving Jesus. My prayer is that He would burn away everything that hinders His love so that He would remain my number one desire!
anyway, here's a few other fun ones...
1. run a half marathon in Central Park in NYC
2. do a triathlon
3. take up gymnastics again
4. go to Israel
5. live on the East coast
6. learn a second language
7. teach English as a second language to children in another country
Challenge: What's on your bucket list? Are the most important things on your list eternal? Don't get me wrong...it's perfectly fine to have fun and adventurous goals on your list! But the Lord desires with all His heart to be your number one desire and goal, your primary aim!
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