The Bucket List

A little over a week ago a trending topic on the web-o-sphere was a story about Alice Pyne, a 15 year old girl with terminal cancer, writing a blog about all the things she hoped to do “before the illness got the better of her.” The blog started as a project amongst close friends, but in little time hit the masses and was publicized by the British Parliament, Katy Perry and many other celebrities urging people to respond to her desire that everybody be a bone marrow donor.

Would you put your “bucket list” out there, and how would people respond to what you hoped for?

Here is a life not stained or entrapped by drug addiction or alcoholism, but one that has been deprived of doing simple things and will be cut far shorter than anyone could hope for. Although Alice’s condition is beyond her control, we can all relate to the battle of wanting something and not being able to get it, or standing taller than our misfortunes and starting anew.

While we live lives that are dominated by drug addiction, our thought patterns get totally distorted and self-absorbed. Every thought, every action is centered around and geared into catering for our drug addiction. Our bucket list is horrid at this stage. What would it look like? Maybe: “Yeah, but I want to,” “Yeah, but I love her,” “Yeah but, it’s exciting,” “Yeah, but I need it,” “Yeah, but it won’t hurt anyone,” “Yeah but, this is my life”—a life full of excuses and wanting the wrong things.

If our addiction goes on for years, we can become outcasts from society. We are cut off from relationships and are unable to find acceptance from people. Isolation and loneliness are terribly painful, and they are not what God intended for us. It is essential for us to restore our relationships and connections with people if we are to emerge from our addictions and make a successful recovery. Once we can face and accept that we have been insane in these ways, we are closer to recognizing how desperately we need God’s touch to restore us. By committing to this we can begin to be free from the isolation and tortured thoughts and feels that accompany addiction.

Alice Pyne shared her deepest hopes by putting them on paper…It starts there. Take a moral inventory of your life followed by a list of all the things that we would like to do and because we were hindered in doing anything—make the choice to put our lives back together through treatment and be able to complete the second list—the bucket list.

“With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26