Ensign: The Bucket List On Our Tenth Wedding Anniversary

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

 

 

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 12 July 2013

My glance at a cover where it was said that one celebrity had a four-page “bucket list” inspired today's title – that, and the fact that today is mine and my wife Martha's tenth wedding anniversary. If I counted this right, we're clocked in at three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days of wedded bliss. Which hasn't all been bliss, I'll grant you, but the fact is Martha and I have stuck together and gotten through the rough spots (now not as many as I sometimes think) and the good times.

I believe, though Martha might dispute me on this, that we got married not only because we love each other (for we do) but also for the sake of having another person complete us. That sounds sappy, but consider God's own pronouncement in Eden that it's not good for man to be alone and His promise to make a help meet for him. And that Eve was not created full blown from the dust of the earth but rather around one of Adam's ribs; she was part of him, and he of her. That means MJ's part of me, and I of her.

Bucket list has only been in use by that name since 2006, but don't all of us have things we want to do and places we want to go before we (physically) die? Essentially it's what we want to do before we “kick the bucket”, a euphemism for dying that I thought went back to the Civil War but it's older than that – when a person was hung in the England of the Middle Ages, they would struggle and … kick the bucket that they'd been standing on.

Before you and I die, bound by physical bodies and linear time as we are, we cannot go everywhere and do everything, so we have to narrow our focus to what is truly important, what deserves the highest priority because ultimately nothing we have or do comes with us. You've heard that “you can't take it with you” … no, but you can leave what you've done to better others' lives behind. Even Solomon, son of David, third king of Israel and the wisest man who ever lived, knew this to be true.

Did he always follow what he knew to be true? I have to say no … I'm in 2 Chronicles right now on my chapter-by-chapter Bible reading recounting his building the Temple, and I know (for I have read ahead) that all the wisdom in the world, even if God imparts it to you, is meaningless if you don't use it. Never mind the joke almost Solomon being the wisest man who ever lived who had over a thousand wives – I still can't put those two together. It makes me wonder when King Solomon had the time …

… in his reign to write Ecclesiastes (ih-cleeze-e-as-tees). For he never identifies himself by name; the author's called “the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem”. Had he written this to get down the wisdom the LORD gave him before he would be overwhelmed with all he'd been given – remember, this is wisdom not knowledge; it's a safe bet you and I KNOW more than Solomon after thirty centuries but we're not wiser.

“Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” You could sum up the book in that one verse, Ecclesiastes 1:2. Vanity comes closer to our word “futility”, and outside the experience Solomon – and you and I – have of God and of using His wisdom, we are essentially living for nothing. Sure make plans and set goals, but as for me I want to live for something bigger than myself, and married life has started to show me that I can. It's not just about me any more. It never has been.

Glory to God,

David


P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager too! If you find that I’m not or you want me to get lost, just let me know, thank you!


We praise You, Lord, for this beautiful day You have given us! Please pray with me for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and for physical and spiritual communities around our world.


Lord, we need Your strength to fight the natural disasters and human ills to ultimately treat the cause and not just the symptoms; until we who have power change, this world You have made us stewards of won’t either.


Thank You, Lord, for all those in leadership and service here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have been given as well as the promise of new life through Your Son. And may we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.