What's On Your List?

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Making a list of what you want for Christmas is a time-honored tradition. I’m not really sure how it started. Among Christians, the practice of giving gifts for Christmas is a symbolic reenactment of the gifts that the three wise man brought to Jesus at His birth. Even in our cultural imagination, the emphasis is on giving. Consider the lyrics of the old jingle:

Santa Claus is coming to town

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice

Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.

In both cases, the wise men bring the gifts and Santa makes the list. But we have turned that around. For most of us, the emphasis is on what we’re getting, not on what we’re giving—hence the list.

A friend of mine recently shared with me a copy of the Christmas list that his nine-year-old niece gave him. I was blown away. The list was compiled with painstaking care. It contained 14 items. Each item was identified, described, and included a SKU code. Finally, the price of each item was included. It was handwritten on a sheet of looseleaf paper and mailed to his address.

Seeing that list brought a smile to my face. It also sent shockwaves through my spirit. The courage shown, specificity demonstrated and research conducted in the compilation of her list made me jealous. Then, it made me start thinking about my “life list.”

In many ways, compiling a Christmas list is easier than compiling a life list. On a Christmas list, someone else is responsible for acquisition, cost, and delivery of each item. On a Christmas list, you simply ask—and someone else does all the work. You can even return the gift if you don’t like it. Or give it away.

Not so on a life list.

A life list is also harder to compile because the more disappointments you rack up, the fewer requests you make. Most of us have lowered our expectations to prevent disappointment. At a certain point, we adjust, and begin to take whatever life gives us. Or worse, we think that we “have it all” and don’t think we need anything.

In Luke 18:10-14, Jesus tells a story about two men who went to the temple to pray. One of them was a religious man, and the other was not. When the prayer service was over, we discover that the irreligious man got what he wanted, but the religious man did not.

Why? If you study their respective prayers, we discover that the religious man did not make a single request. His prayer was an ode of self-congratulation. There was no ask on his list. Jesus told that story to highlight the dangers of self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness is really self sabotage, because it stems from self-satisfaction.

As you compile your Christmas list, take another look at your life list.

Do you even have a list of what YOU want out of life?

If so, what’s on it?

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