My Bucket List

One night last winter, at a dinner party at a friend’s home, one of the guests came up with this interesting conversation starter: What would you say is on your personal bucket list?

He was referring to the recent movie, The Bucket List, in which Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, two men who are simultaneously diagnosed with terminal cancer, jet off to do all the things they’ve always wanted to do before they “kick the bucket.” They visit the pyramids; drink champagne in France; gamble in Hong Kong; jump out of an airplane; and generally risk their necks and blow a great deal of Nicholson’s money in an attempt to feel alive before life ends.

“So what is on your personal bucket list?” I was the first to answer the question. I should have been more patient. The first thing that came to mind, for some reason, was travel. I did a quick inventory of the places that I have been privileged to visit, and thought about the places I’d still like to see for myself. I mentioned a few countries and a few islands – China, New Zealand, the Galapagos, and the like.

Other guests were stumped. “I’ve guess I’ve never thought about this before,” said one of them. Still another guest answered thoughtfully, “I don’t believe I need to visit more places, or pursue more adventures. Before I die, I would like to help enrich the lives of other people.”

Rats. That’s what I meant to say. Is it too late for me to take back my answer?

I was thinking about The Bucket List a few weeks ago when I visited Petra, a spectacular series of ancient tombs cut into red sandstone in the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan. Petra was voted last year to the “new” list of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is perhaps best known as the dramatic backdrop where Harrison Ford and Sean Connery ride horses in the closing scenes of The Last Crusade. You can even get a coffee mug or a bullwhip at the Indiana Jones Snack Bar. I only wish I were making that up.

Nevertheless, you can visit all the wonders and swim on all the beaches and climb all the mountains in the world. But if your final goal is self-fulfillment, you will never come to the end of your bucket list. There will always be something else that another somebody thinks is worth seeing. Human selves cannot ultimately be fulfilled through travel, or adventure, or risk-taking.

Nor is self-preservation a worthy goal. Don’t get me wrong. I suppose I maintain a sort of negative bucket list – things that I definitely hope don’t happen before I die. I hope I never have to say the words, “my urologist.” Nor do I cherish being audited by the IRS. I hope I never receive the medical diagnosis that Ted Kennedy received a few days back.

But I am not the primary scriptwriter for my life. And one day my heart is going to stop beating, regardless of my most strenuous efforts to the contrary. As George Bernard Shaw memorably put it, “The statistics on death are very impressive. One out of one people die.”

If self-fulfillment is a dead end, and if self-preservation is rendered meaningless by our own appointment with the grave, what is worth doing with the remaining days of our lives? The apostle Paul boldly opted for self-abandonment. Consider these words from Philippians 3:12-14: “I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward – to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back” (The Message).

The astonishing thing is that Paul wasn’t on a whirlwind global tour, collecting experiences and souvenirs, when he penned those sentences. He was stuck in a windowless prison. Yet he was vastly more content that the majority of us affluent moderns who are wondering how many more adventures it will take to bring us happiness.

I hope I get another chance to answer the question, “What is on your personal bucket list?” My answer won’t be a string of things I hope to do. Before I kick the bucket I very much hope to become the kind of person who loves God and loves others with such abandon that Jesus’ prayer – “may your kingdom come and your will be done” – can be at least partially answered through my life.