Obedience led to teaching Sunday School

Bucket List

As I go into the last 30 years of my life, I am developing a Bucket List.  For those who do not know what that means, I think you have heard the term “kick the bucket”  so the bucket is a list of things you would like to do before you die. 

I have often wondered what my list would look like if I was told I had terminal cancer or knew I would die of a heart attack next week.

What are the things on my bucket list that mean something eternally? 

Dr. Brent Roth (who will be speaking at our church) this and next Sunday has had to face this question almost daily for the past 20 years

I am an Analyzer by nature.  I like to analyze every sermon I hear, every service I go to and figure out why I like a service or don’t like a service, and how they could have made that service better by……

I have to remind myself to just sit and enjoy and stop analyzing everything and everybody.  When I go to a conference I remind myself that even if the conference is not well organized, I should focus on getting at least “one thing” that will help me serve others better  or make me more Christ-like if I changed something about myself.

So, as I began thinking about asking all of you to make a bucket list of things you want to accomplish in the next year (thinking as small as I could), I wondered if you would think BIG or think small.  I wondered how many of you actually thought you could accomplish the things on your bucket list, or if most of you just thought it would just be a “wish” list.

So a bucket list should not be a wish list.  It should actually be things that you could accomplish, given enough time before you die.  If you know that you could actually die of a heart attack from a panic attack if you put “sky diving” on your list, you should probably just put “powered parachute with Norm” on your list instead.  Alaska was on my bucket list.  I wanted to ride the Whitepass Railway to see where the early gold miners took their  long fateful trail to get their gold.  I crossed it off my bucket list last month.

Well, this morning, I must tell you that one of the things on my bucket list began last January when I realized that my memory had begun to fail me.  I decided to take on things on my bucket list that would sharpen my failing mind and  tax my brain.   I took over the Kindle Fire I bought for Norm for Christmas,  and offered to buy him another. 

To my bucket list I added the game “Words with Friends” introduced to me in Thailand by my daughter Lynette while we waited 3 wks for baby Henry to arrive.  and I invited people like Cindy Eash to play with me, who I knew was a genius with words, and as I thought, could easily challenge me.    I used to loathe playing Scrabble with people like Conrad Showalter who love Word games, but somehow playing Words with Friends hooks me because it allows me time to think and is not a “pressure cooker” game).   I have also decided to be balanced in my work and play and not be as obsessed with “work” as I have been in the last 60 years.  I realize that my life could be criticized when people are doing service projects and I am getting my exercise walking behind a golf cart.  But all of us need to be accountable to our Heavenly Father first and foremost and I keep reminding myself of that.  Is Jesus pleased with how I spend my day?

A failing memory and failing eyes were the reason for the next item on my bucket list.   Before my father would go under anesthesia, he would always say “goodbye and I wil see you on the other side, if I don’t wake up.”  I could see an anxiousness about him, and I would remind him to repeat “The Lord is my Shepherd” and told him I used that chapter any time I could not sleep.  My father had memorized large passages of Scripture during his pastorate.  So he began repeating Scriptures aloud.  In his last months, he could hardly see to read, but he had those scriptures to comfort him in those lonely hours dying with stomach cancer. 

So, the hardest thing on my bucket list this year was my decision to begin memorizing a passage of Scripture.  I wanted it to be life-changing.    Rose Yoder suggested I memorize James.   Jason and Rose’s entire family decided to memorize passages at their breakfast table.  And then my friend, Ginger Yoder (whose husband died of a heart attack 2 years ago) encouraged me by saying she is memorizing James.  I decided I needed to have accountability so I called my son Tim to join me in memorizing James 1.  He said, “there aren’t many chapters in James,” and wanted to memorize the whole book.  I made the awful decision that day to memorize with him.    It was only awful because memorizing is perhaps the hardest thing in the world for me to do, and Tim is used to memorizing the books he reads.  He spent most of his elementary years reading encyclopedias to put himself to sleep, while I snore within 5 minutes of hitting the bed. 

So, today, I would like us to open up James 1 and just look at the first chapter and talk about what some of those verses mean to you.

At the annual Global Leadership Summit this weekend, I committed to pray this My Morning Prayer for the next 30 days, August 10 to September  10, 2012.

“God, this is a new day.  I freshly commit myself to the role you have invited me to play, as you are building your church in this world.  I am awestruck again today that you include me in this grand life-giving, world transforming endeavor.  So today I joyfully offer you:

MY LOVE

MY HEART

MY TALENTS

MY ENERGY

MY CREATIVITY

MY FAITHFULNESS

MY RESOURCES

AND MY GRATITUDE

I COMMIT ALL OF MYSELF TO THE ROLE YOU HAVE ASSIGNED ME IN THE BUILDING OF YOUR CHURCH SO THAT IT MAY THRIVE IN THIS WORLD.  And I will bring it today.  I will bring my best.  You deserve it.  Your church deserves it.  It is the Hope of the World.  Amen”

James 1    in Carol’s personalized paraphrased NIV version.  My friend, Ginger Yoder, encouraged me to pray the Scriptures I was memorizing.

James, a servant of God

and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes

scattered among the nations:

Greetings.

² I consider it pure joy when I  face trials of many kinds,

 ³ because I know that the testing of my faith produces perseverance.

⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that I may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

⁵ Today as I  lack wisdom, remind me to ask you, God for wisdom because you want to give it to me generously.

 ⁶ You have asked me not to doubt when I ask for wisdom and reminded me that if I doubt I am like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

⁷ If I doubt and not have faith, I should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

 ⁸ You will consider me to be double-minded and unstable in all I do.

⁹ As a believer when I find myself in humble circumstances, I ought to take pride in my high position in you.

¹⁰ If I have plenty, I need to remind myself that stocks and bonds and retirement funds can be gone overnight.  They are like wild flowers. ¹¹ The sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.

¹² I remind myself that I am blessed when I persevere under trial because,

 having stood the test,  I will receive the crown of life that you, Lord, have promised to those who love him.

¹³ When tempted, I should not say, “God is tempting me.” For you, God, cannot be tempted by evil, neither do you tempt anyone;

¹⁴ but I am tempted when I am dragged away by MY OWN evil desire and enticed.

¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

¹⁶ I won’t be deceived as to who gives me good gifts.

¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift comes from you Father, and you do not change like shifting shadows.

¹⁸ You chose to give us birth through the word of truth, and you consider us the firstfruits of all you created.

¹⁹ Today I will take note of your instruction in your Word for everyone to be quick to listen,  slow to speak and slow to become angry,

 ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that you (God) desire.

²¹ Therefore help me to stay clear of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent

 and humbly accept the word planted in me, because it will save me from trouble.

²² You have asked me to not merely listen to the word, but to do what it says.

²³ If I listen to the word but do not do what it says I am like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

²⁵ But if I look intently into the Bible it will give me freedom.

If I continue to read, not forgetting to understand what I am reading, but put your Word into practice,  I will be blessed in my life.

²⁶ As a Christian, you have asked me to keep a tight rein on my tongue.   You have said that if I can’t my religion is worthless.

²⁷ The kind of religion that you,  God our Father, accepts is the kind that looks out for the needs of orphans and widows, who cannot take care of themselves.

Help me to influence those around me that are ungodly, instead of letting them influence me to deny you.