Six Months Left...

Dear Family,

In the movie, "The Bucket Lists," Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson find themselves wondering what to do before their time on this earth is through. They make a list of all the things they have never done, but they want to, before they "kick the bucket." My sense is that this is not a new phenomenon. In fact there are songs about "live like you are dying." Or other references to how you live, if you knew you only had a few months to live. And as i rehearse these movies, songs, and books, i realize something: these aren't stories about dying. They are stories about living, and i wonder how much living we really do.

In our text for today: Genesis 49, Jacob blesses all of his sons, because Jacob knows the time is near. He makes sure they know he loves them. He makes sure they have what they need. He is making sure that his legacy, through them, will live on and that they will carry the family name and narrative into the future. But as i reflect on Jacob's blessings, on his deathbed, i wonder what would his life had been had he spent everyday of his life blessing people? What would his life had been like if he, instead of waiting to his death bed, lived each day like it was his last? What might he accomplish? How many lives might he bless? How would his relationships be? Many questions, and no way to find answers.

Except the questions remain, don't they? What would we do if we had only six months to live? What would our bucket lists look like? What have we been putting off, claiming there is always time? And how many relationships would we restore, believing we may never see these people again, and we want to go into our eternal life with no regret? I want to challenge each of us to think about our own bucket lists. I want us all to think about what if? What if we only had six months to live, what would we do?

And instead of living like we were dying, i want us to live, truly live. The reality is that i dont know what six months from now holds, but my sense is life will continue beyond that, but if all i do is the same, mundane, day to day routine, without living, without embracing life, or without fulfilling what i want to do, then i am already dead, aren't i? Was life meant to be lived for only the last six months? OR...

Were we created to live our entire life as if it were our last six months?

How much more full would our live be then?

And one other question that has puzzled me and confused me a lot, lately. Let me get this right. I want to save up, work hard and long now, save as many pennies as possible, not spend, put away, put away, and put away, live like a miser, for what fifty years? Until i am seventy and want to retire? Is that the plan? So lets do the math. I work my butt off, save and sacrifice for FIFTY years, so that, at seventy or a little older, i can retire and finally enjoy life, which means i might, if the average holds, have another twelve to fifteen years of living? Which sounds more like insanity? Sacrificing for fifty or enjoy my entire life, all eighty years of it?

Just a thought..

Shalom,
jerry