A life list or a bucket list—the basic idea has been around ever since the fifth century B.C., when Herodotus’ sent Greeks eagerly across the Mediterranean to see Luxor and the pyramids. Phoebe Snetsinger had her “life list.” That’s what bird watchers call the summation of their years of devotion. Phoebe had long been an enthusiastic birder, but when a doctor gave her a diagnosis of terminal cancer near her 50th birthday, she began traveling to ever more distant and daunting environments to see rare bird species.
Meanwhile, her disease went into remission. By the time she died, in 1999, at age 68, she had spotted a then-record 8,400 species, nearly 85 percent of the world’s known winged creatures. Her achievement is an admittedly extreme example of what the life list has become in the broader culture: things to experience while you still have time.
Others prefer to use “bucket list,” a term from the 2007 film in which Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play stricken men who set out to do all the things they’ve wanted to do before kicking the bucket. Life list or bucket list? What’s on yours? What should be on your list? Or as a Christian bound for a place of infinite glory and joy, do we even need a bucket list?
Jamie Malonowski, “New Places to See,” Smithsonian (September 2015)
I guess it depends on what’s on our list? Scripture affirms that there is nothing wrong with experiencing pleasure and enjoyable activities ‘while you still have time.’ Yet, in the midst of our reasonable plans and desires we can discover as Thoreau said, “That we live lives of quiet desperation” or do we find a sense of mission, calling and purpose?
It is possible that we can miss divine opportunities by the kind of choices we make today and in the future.
Jesus said, For I seek to not to please myself but Him who sent me. John 5:30
Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly. 1 Corinthians 9:26
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. Acts 20:24
Join us next time as we discover how we can recognize and maximize the divine opportunities that will come our way.
