January 2012
Aloha Wai`oli Hui`ia `Ohana,
In the fall, I visited my friend from high school days- who now lives in Mexico on the Baja peninsula. His home is right at “Scorpion Bay” or as he and I like to call it: “The 'Old Folks' Home for Nose-riding” with small perfect waves peeling across a smooth sandy bottom in warm water. “Nose-riding” is a surfing term for the vintage maneuver of walking up to the forward 12” of your surfboard and surfing from there. “Hanging 5” is to place your front foot right over the edge of the nose of your surfboard. And “Hanging 10” is putting all ten toes there. Over the many years I have been surfing, I’ve been able to “Hang 5” in the right conditions, with right surfboard, etc. often enough. But, I could never “Hang 10”: perching on the nose, like a prairie dog and walk back to trim without falling. So “Hanging 10” was on my short, random “bucket list” of things I want to do before I “kick the bucket”.
It’s good question though really. What do you want to do, see, accomplish, achieve before you “kick the bucket”? Maybe that’s a more significant questions as one enters into the later years of their life. Who knows how many years we actually have? Maybe that’s a question people with a bunch years ask. But I think is a good question for us all to ask, at least during this time of the year. What’s on your “2012 Bucket List”?
Let me suggest just two to put your list: PRAY (more); WORSHIP God in Church (more). You might think that’s what a clergy person would say. But think about it: how many of us believe that “spiritual growth” is a high priority? For us Christians, prayer and worship are cornerstones to our spirituality. How does that happen? Not by thinking about it. Not even by believing it to be a true and good thing. You can only Pray and Worship by doing it. It’s not rocket science and it was never intended to be.
Pray alone, pray together, pray formally, pray spontaneously, pray your stream consciousness, pray when you can’t sleep at night, pray silently, pray out loud, write out your prayers, pray the great prayers of faith and the Scriptures (I’m memorizing The Lord’s Prayer in Hawaiian). Pray for our Sunday School and our Church and its people.
Worship God in Church. God can answer your prayers and speak to you when you are in fellowship in worship at Church. In fact, you should expect God to tell you something in worship in His sanctuary. And part of coming to Church to worship God is showing God respect. Does God deserve our respect? Too often respect is like common courtesy- not too common. Our world must turn that around. It begins with each one of us.
We can be the start of a chain reaction of being better for a new year. Yes, it requires effort and perseverance- but, it will result in knowing God more and His plan and His purpose for our lives. And that, will be a joy and blessing that is wonderful beyond our greatest expectations- "How sweet it is!"
“During the day the Lord sends His love to me. And in the night
His song shall be with me- A prayer to the God of my life.” -Psalm 42:8
"on the road to bucket list & beyond" |