Thursday, June 26, 2014

Buckets, lists and all things in-between

Have you figured out what you really want done in your life? I mean, really figured it out? Decided on a plan? Made lists and such? Maybe that's the next on your agenda, I mean, his planning and setting goals.

Or, maybe not. It is a dreary, dreary morning of at least of the weather kind. Our family has summoned progress as an idea. We've structured progress as a goal. We've decided that progress might one day happen.

Coffee is hot. The skies are exceedingly gray, as they have been all week. I'm trying to figure out where the next step will be taken, even while taking very few. And on and on we go, with the day ahead, likely remaining ahead.

Got that? Didn't think so.

John the Baptizer wrote these words, "Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this. And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it."

Therefore, we know in the throne room, someone is sitting on a throne. We know so darn little beyond that, in this passage, but we know that much. Therefore, we are at least sure the King is on the thrown.

God that? Didn't think so.

You might detect a bucket-filled amount of joy in our lives this morning. Oh, it's dreary as I write this. Weary kind of dreary, too. It's foggy. It's muggy. It's rainy. It's hot.

But the garbage folk picked up the garbage, for the first time. We're learning as we go, like where garbage will be placed and such. And what we've done is begin to figure out what we will do next. That's kind of what life is all about in the long run. All is good, then. All.  

Joy comes with the morning. Pleasantries come with the joy. We have a series of sermons heading toward the congregation. We are making steps.

This is life, as we know it.  Box a box or box a box or two. Two steps forward, a couple dozen back. That's life. That's just life as we know it. But we're getting there. I pray we get things in some sort of what might pass as order by the end of the end of the next week.

Looking around at things this morning, delving into Wikipedia and such, I came across this dictionary meaning of order: An arrangement of items, the way in which several items are arranged, as an indication of their relative importance or size or when each will be dealt with.

I suspect that's where we, my wife and I, children and I, grandchildren and I, are now. We're set aside a pot of joy without actually getting to stir it up. But that's okay.

We have an arrangement of items. Life is arranged. We have an idea of what an idea is and what it will some day be, but we do not have a complete idea about what that is or will be.

In other words, we're getting somewhere, but we're darn sure not getting there quickly.

In the coming days, we will wrap up this section of our life, and we will head off in a more conclusive bit of time. We will find the time to greet folks we don't know. We will smile a lot. We will touch hands and smile a bit more.

What I've learned over time is this: Bucket lists are important little ditties that need doing. Some are better at accomplishing those things than others. Some are diligent at getting those items checked off. Some are not.

But for those who are pretty darn good at checking them off, ultimately satisfaction comes rolling in off the water like so much fog. Me? I'm still trying to figure out what my bucket-list items are.

                                           


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