Trumpet List

(by Lorie Codispoti)

Because I am a natural goal setter, & find immense pleasure in compiling & working off a list, the concept of creating a “Bucket List” is appealing. However, the more I think about it the more superficial the idea becomes. It limits both the scope of the vision & the subsequent rewards.

In his book, Weight Of Glory, C.S. Lewis wrote,

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

If my bucket list is comprised of all the places I’d like to visit, all the things I’d like to do, & everything I’d like to acquire before I “kick the bucket” then it feels more like a race to make as many mud pies as I can before the rain comes & washes it all away.

In light of this, I propose a different kind of list - a list whose scope is broadened by each entry & whose rewards are endless. I call it my “Trumpet List.” (1Cor.15:51-53, 1Thess.4:16) The main objective is to “love God with all our heart, soul, mind & strength” so everything on the list reflects that goal.

God’s word houses most of the entries so it’s more like something you sign up for rather than something you compile. For example, I added Psalm 71:17-18 to my Trumpet List when I became a mother (& it remains as a grandmother) … “O God, You have taught me from my youth; & to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old & grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.”

Am I trying to discourage you from having a bucket list? No! (I still want to go to Alaska one day.) I want to encourage you to go beyond the superficial. Buckets are temporary containers that hold mud pies in comparison to the eternal rewards that await & follow long past the sound of the trumpet. Don’t let the fleeting pleasures you obtain in the “slum” keep you from enjoying the “holiday at the sea” God has planned.