Bucket Lists and Prayer - things rarely prayed for

Bucket Lists and PrayerDo you have a bucket list, a list of things you want to do, places you want to see, things you want experience before you die? What’s on it? Climb the highest peak on every continent? Drive a race car? Swim with the dolphins? Cruise around the world? Play golf at Augusta and Saint Andrews? Run with the Bulls? Dive on the Great Barrier Reef? Build your own airplane? See the great pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and the Great Wall of China? Write a book? Visit all of the great art galleries? Run a marathon? Sky dive? Train a horse? Travel with your family? Buy a ranch? Learn an instrument? ….? What would be the two things you would put on top of that list? The two things you absolutely hope to experience and come to pass before you die?Someone’s bucket list is very revealing, both for what’s on it and what’s not on it. It gives insight into your interests, passions, and dreams. It shows what you care about, what gets your juices flowing and what leaves you cold. What you would be willing to spend your time and money on (Bucket lists seem to take time and money, that’s why many have two bucket lists, the one they can afford and the one they would have if money were no object)?Self-indulgent they are for the most part, our bucket lists. They are about what the “I” wants, the “me” likes. I wonder if Agur, the hireling, the gatherer, the collector, was working on his bucket list before he crumbled it up, tossed it in the trash, and replaced it with a bucket list prayer? "Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God” Proverbs 30:7-9 (NIV). What are the chances you and I would have put something like that not only on top of our bucket list but also our prayer list? Integrity, honesty, genuineness, submission to God, the honor of God, how important are these to us? How much do we want to experience them? How much do they influence our desires, our dreams, our prayers? Maybe your bucket list is already what Agur petitioned God to keep him from: an exclusion of God from our desires, our dreams, our plans; God is not needed nor wanted? Maybe it is time to rewrite both our bucket list and our prayer list? Maybe the two should be compatible? Maybe we are lying to ourselves when they are not?To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans