To Do List

I just wrote out a "To Do List" for the rest of my week. Listed are three funerals to prepare for...THREE! I've preached many funerals through the years, but I must confess that it never gets any easier. Death is always a kick in the gut that just knocks the breath out of you. Obviously, it's different when it's your loved one who's died instead of being the one preaching the funeral. But it's never easy.

These funerals (and all funerals, really) remind me that life has a beginning and it has an end. As strange as it sounds, death is a part of life. The writer of Hebrews put it this way--"It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" (9:27).

One of the most probing prayers that I find in Scripture is one by Moses. It reminds us that our days are numbered. Psalm 90:12--"So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." Our days are numbered, so what are we doing with the time we have? Amy Carmichael, an Irish missionary to India a century ago, said, "We will have eternity to celebrate the victories, but only a few hours before sunset to win them."

Some friends and I went to see the new movie this past weekend starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, "The Bucket List." The idea of a bucket list, as I discovered through the film, is a list of things you'd like to do before you "kick the bucket." Except for some language, the movie was pretty good and had a good message. As we were walking out, someone in the group--Jeff Williams, I believe--suggested that perhaps Christians should develop a spiritual bucket list...a list of everything you want to do for the Lord before you meet Him. I think that's an awesome idea.

In the movie, as you discover from the previews (so I'm not spoiling the film for you), it takes the two main characters battling cancer to do those things they'd always wanted to do but had never gotten around to it. Why is that how we live our lives? Should it really take knowing we're dying to jolt us into living?!? Because I've got news for us all--we all have a terminal condition known as sin. And as a result, we're all going to die. So, now that we have settled the question of our deaths, what're we going to do with the time we have left?

Realizing that this particular blog may be a downer for you...let me shift gears as I close:

Some friends were hanging out one day, and the conversation grimly turned to the issue of death. One of the friends asked the others, "What would you like people to say about you at your funeral?"

One friend answered, "I would want people to say, 'He was a great humanitarian who cared about his community.'"

A second replied, "I would want people to say, 'He was a great husband and father, an example for many to follow.'"

The third friend gave it some thought and answered, "I would hope someone says, 'Look, he's moving!'"

Thanks for reading...