What’s on Your Bucket List?

What’s something you hope to do before your life is over?

Our staff is reading Legacy Letters together (which I highly recommend!). We just finished the chapter on bucket lists. As we went around the room, I was fascinated by the answers coming from our team. They included riding in a hot air balloon, visiting Antarctica, seeing the windmills in Holland, and watching a game in every NBA stadium.

I loved it! I was inspired by their dreams. And each response revealed something new about the person sharing. These dreams also remind us that life is a gift, and there is so much in God’s world to enjoy.

That conversation left me thinking about another question:

What do you hope God will do through your life?

This weekend, our church celebrated forty years of God’s faithfulness. Cornerstone began with people who saw a growing community and believed it needed a church. They prayed, dreamed, and got to work.

As a brand new church, they didn’t have a building. So they carried toys, hymnals, and everything else they needed into a hotel each Sunday. The choir practiced in a mobile home. Some weeks, the offering had to be counted before the staff could be paid!

The men and women who started our church couldn’t see everything that would follow. But they believed God could use their faithfulness to help people know Jesus.

Forty years later, God is still blessing what they started.

About a month ago, I attended a conference in Florida and found myself sitting near a young man I had never met. But it turned out he grew up at Cornerstone. God called him to ministry through our church, and he is now serving as a student pastor.

Think about that. People who hauled supplies into a hotel decades ago helped build a church where a boy would come to know Jesus and eventually teach others to follow him.

We rarely get to see the full reach of our obedience.

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he thanked God for their “partnership in the gospel” (Philippians 1:5). They weren’t just friends or acquaintances. Their relationship had a special purpose. Together, they were giving themselves to the work of making Jesus known.

That is God’s calling for every Christian.

You don’t have to become a pastor or move overseas to be partner in the gospel. God can work through your home, your friendships, your church, and the ordinary places where you spend your days.

You could help a younger believer learn to read the Bible. Open your home to neighbors. Serve children who need patient adults to teach them about Jesus. Pray faithfully for a friend and look for an opportunity to share the gospel. Give generously to help send someone where you cannot go yourself.

Being a partner in the gospel starts with you following Jesus. And it ends with you helping others do the same thing.

At Cornerstone, we are praying about the decade ahead: sending missionaries, planting a church, developing leaders, and helping more children and students follow Jesus. Those hopes will take shape through people offering God their gifts, resources, time, and willingness.

So here is my encouragement: take a few minutes and write down something you hope God will do through you. (All the research in the world tells us you are exponentially more likely to accomplish the goals you write down.)

Bring it before him in prayer. Ask whether it reflects his purposes. Talk with someone who can help you discern a next step. Then begin with the opportunity he has already put in front of you.

You may never know everyone your faithfulness touches. The people who started our church certainly didn’t.

But someone else may one day thank God that you prayed, made room, spoke up, gave, or went.

What are you asking God to do through your life? And what step of faithfulness can you take today?