I just opened a book called The Book of Lists. It includes things like “10 Celebrities who have seen UFOs.” These include Muhammed Ali and William Shatner of Star Trek fame. Another list is “11 Cats Who Traveled Long Distances to Come Home.” At the top of the list is a two-year-old part-Persian cat named Sugar who was left behind with a neighbour when her owners moved 1,500 miles from Anderson, California to Gage, Oklahoma. Two weeks later, Sugar disappeared. Fourteen months after that, she turned up in Gage, Oklahoma on her former owner’s doorstep, having traveled more than 100 miles a month to a place she had never ever been. Amazing. Waytago Sugar!
Lists. Do you have some? I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Bucket list.” But do you know where it came from? The expression was coined by Justin Zackham, who came up with something he called “List of Things to do Before I Kick the Bucket” which he later shortened to “Justin’s Bucket List.” At the top of that list? “Get a film made at a major studio,” which is exactly what he did. His list gave him the idea for a screenplay, and The Bucket List became his first studio film in which two terminally ill men, played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, go on a road trip with a wish list of things they want to do before they die. In one scene they sit gazing at the pyramids.
Freeman, who plays Carter Chambers, says to Edward Cole, played by Nicolson, “You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the gods asked them two questions. Their answers determined whether they were admitted or not.”
Nicolson pauses and says, “Okay, I’ll bite. What were they?”
Freeman says, “Have you found joy in your life?”
Nicolson fumbles a bit, so Freeman says, “Answer the question.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you.”
Nicolson says, “Answer the question? ‘Have I found joy in my life?’…Yes!”
So Freeman asks the second question: “Has your life brought joy to others?”
What would you say? Have you found joy in your life? Has your life brought joy to others?
A thousand jokes start with St. Peter meeting someone at the pearly gates. Like the one about the wealthy guy who is led by Saint Peter down streets of gold, past castles and mansions to a broken-down wooden shack. The rich man is stunned. “That’s all I get?” St. Peter says, “We did the best we could with the money you sent us.”
Well, there’s nothing in the Bible to suggest we’ll be asked to play 20 Questions with St. Peter, pass an IQ test or cross our fingers just right. What will matter is that our name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that we can say with the thief on the cross, “The man on the middle cross said I should come.”
We come by His mercy, by His grace. If you’re uncertain about your future, take care of it today. Just say, “Jesus, you died for me. I’m yours by grace through faith. You’re alive! I want you to live in me.”
Our death-crushing Saviour promises this: “Because I live, you will live also,” Blasting from the grave Easter morning, he gave us a “living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
The musical Pilgrim is based on The Pilgrim’s Progress. Throughout the play the human characters do not see the King. Then, when the main character finally crosses the dark river to his eternal home, with joy he cries out, “I can see the King!” And so will we, one day soon. Do whatever it takes to make your way home. Make sure it is #1 on your bucket list.
