Can you believe that 2012 is already here?  Each year I experience that same sense of amazement at the speed that times seem to be passing. Most of you know exactly what I am talking about. In those moments when we pause to consider our journey, we might do well to reflect on how time is used rather than how quickly it passes.

  A few years ago I was both surprised and delighted with the message of a movie called “The Bucket List.” The movie was about two men that met when they shared a room in the hospital. Both men were dealing with terminal illness. One man was a business tycoon who made more money than he could spend, while the other man was a blue collar mechanic that had never really hit it big. The two men were as different as could be.

  One scene showed the blue collar guy scribbling on a piece of paper. He made an odd list of things. When the rich guy read the list, it didn’t make sense to him, so he asked what it meant. The paper was called a “bucket list,” meaning a list of things the author wanted to do before he died. So, one guy had a list of things he could not afford to do and the other guy had enough money to do anything he wanted to do. The two of them set off together to experience all the things they had listed on their combined bucket list.

  The director did a great job capturing the flavor of adventure that these guys experienced. They raced hot rod cars, went sky diving, and traveled the world, just to name a few of their experiences. The one guy had never had the chance to do such things, while the other had never taken the time to do them. Both men, when forced to consider how best to use their remaining time, realized that there were some really important things that they wanted to do with their remaining time.

  One of the things that I drew from this movie was the thought that we need to be very deliberate about how we choose to use our time. Life has a way of pressuring you to allocate your time for a lot of things that may not pertain to the challenge of really living. Life is a precious gift, and there are many opportunities all around us that we easily miss.

  Some years ago, I was taking night classes as a young preacher. Our teacher was a retired minister. God had been good to him over the years, and he had been astute with his savings and investments, and he had a cool million dollars in retirement savings. Toward the end of one of our classes, we decided to celebrate by having a class meal. We ordered some pizzas, and the class members brought all the other things needed for our party. We had a couple of pizzas that were decked out with all the fixings, and one with just pepperoni.

  I explained that our teacher had been smart with his money. To some degree, that meant he had been kind of tight. For more than 70 years he had ordered the cheapest, most basic pizzas (or burgers or whatever else). So when we began to eat, he took a slice of the plain pepperoni pizza. But he kept eyeing those deluxe pizzas, and when it was time for seconds, he made an offhand statement that maybe he would try just one of those fancy ones. I can still see the surprise and joy on his face as he experienced the taste of a pizza with all the fixings. He had another slice, and then another. We laughed and laughed at our beloved friend, and we made more than one joke at his expense, which he took with his usual good nature.

  When the evening was drawing to a close, I was there talking with our teacher as everyone else left, and he just kept talking about that deluxe pizza. He had just never had anything like that in all his life. I grinned and told him that it was sad to spend a life saving all that money while never having a slice of pizza with all the fixings.

I remember when I left the furniture factory. I gave up 75% of my income so that I could spend more time with things like family and church. I explained this to my supervisor, and he said something I will never forget. He said, “Rick, I have never met someone who retired and said that they wished that they had spent more time on the job.”

So here you are. It’s 2012 now, and you have the chance to use your time any way you want. I hope that you are responsible and wise. And I hope that you also take time to do things that you always wanted to do. I hope you take the opportunities to step out and try things that you may not have done before, and you just might find out that it is more than worth it! Time is a gift from God, so use it in ways that bring a smile to your face, and to our Lord’s! Happy New Year,  Pastor Rick