So, what do you have on your bucket list? You know, that list of things that you “just have to do” before you “kick the bucket.” There are so many places to go, people to meet, and things to do! A quick Google search of “favorite places to go” reveals to us opportunities we didn’t even know existed and perhaps creates in us a feeling of missing out on so many of the exciting experiences in life. The ideal life in today’s world seems to be to quit your job, buy an RV, travel around the world, and make YouTube videos about your experiences. You can enjoy a life of fun and ease as you motor off into the sunset, but then what?
With today’s affluence, ease of transportation, free time, and, of course, the internet, our society has become obsessed with adventure. And there are plenty of transportation and tourism businesses that are willing to accommodate. Tourism has become one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in the world, with one in ten jobs now dependent on tourism.[^1]
What Is Our Worldview?
But please pause a moment and think with me about the big picture. What is our worldview, and how does it affect how we view this life, and the one to come? You see, the “bucket list mentality” seems to assume that this life is all there is-or at least the most important-or at least that’s the way we are tempted to think. After all, “you only go around once”, right? But perhaps we are being squeezed into a worldly way of thinking without realizing it.[^2]
Before we continue, I want to be clear that I don’t necessarily think that traveling is inherently wrong. Certainly, these things can serve a good purpose as means of relaxation, or spending quality time with our family and friends, or simply enjoying God’s creation. But the big questions are – Are my goals for this life made with a view for the next life? Do I prioritize my own entertainment or the kingdom of God?
Seek First the Kingdom
In Matthew 6:33 Jesus gives us direction on how to prioritize our lives. He admonishes us to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” In context, the “all things” He refers to are food, drink, and clothing, the basic necessities of life. But His admonition to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” does help with prioritizing other things as well.
So, what does it mean to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”? The Kingdom of God is the realm in which God reigns and is obeyed.[^3] The current manifestation is within the hearts of men. We seek first the Kingdom of God by individually yielding our lives to God and obeying Him and then encouraging others to do the same. We seek His righteousness by allowing His righteousness to fill our lives and then helping others to do the same. As we do this, God promises that He will supply our basic needs.
What about the other areas of our lives? Can I now start checking off my bucket list? If we are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness – when we put that as most important – it will be easier to determine the proper importance of other areas of our lives. And that might include traveling, but it will be done as a result of our first seeking God. There is no worthy endeavor, but what will be better served by seeking God first, rather than that endeavor directly.
What Is Our Focus?
There are a couple of other verses in Matthew 6 that might be a little harder to understand:
The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23 NKJV)
“The lamp of the body is the eye.” Our physical eye is the organ by which light enters the body. It receives light from that on which it is focused and translates it into a message which the brain can understand. Now an oil-filled lamp cannot give light on its own. It is dependent on the supply of oil, and our eyes cannot see – or let light into the body – unless there is a source of light.
The word “eye” is sometimes used to refer to our spiritual understanding. It is also used in reference to the attention that we give to someone or something, or our focus. This meaning fits the context here better. In the spiritual sense we become filled with that on which we focus our attention. If we have a single focus on God – if we focus on that which is good – then our lives will be filled with His spiritual light – with spiritual understanding and righteousness. But if we focus on evil, we will be filled with spiritual darkness.
We cannot produce light of ourselves. Our lives can only be filled with light as we focus on God. As we focus only on God, He will fill every area of our life with His light.
Spiritual double vision is having one eye on God and one on other things. It is trying to focus on two things, such as God and money, or God and pleasure. This results in giving attention to the wrong thing; a person can have only one main focus. One cannot serve both God and money (Matt. 6:24), or God and pleasure. When Jesus was asked by a scribe what was the greatest commandment, He replied with a quote from Deut. 6:5. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
In the physical world, if we are trying to focus on two things, we are more likely to trip over something and stumble. This is true in the spiritual world as well. If our focus is divided, we are more likely to make decisions that could cause us to trip in our spiritual lives.
Paul’s Bucket List
If we were to ask the Apostle Paul what was on his bucket list, he would likely respond with these words from the third chapter of Philippians, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
In this chapter Paul lists his credentials – the things that made him an honorable and respectable Jew (v. 4-6). Yet, he considered that these things were a loss, even a hindrance to him, in his quest for what he considered more important. For Paul, his greatest desire was to experience a relationship with Christ, to know the joy of being righteous in the sight of God through faith, to experience the life-changing power of Christ working in his own life, to see God working through him in the lives of others, and even to suffer for Christ, if, through that, he could experience the resurrection from the dead (v. 8-11). For him the most important thing was not what he could enjoy in this life, but what he would experience in the next. He challenges us to follow his example (v. 17).
But Paul also gives us a warning. He warns us of those who have their minds and hearts set on the things of this world. He says they are serving their own appetites, and that they are even enemies of Christ and his cross. The thought of someone being so distracted from what is most important in this life brings him to tears.
Paul’s life was anything but boring. His list of adventures makes the adventures advertised by travel companies look like a walk in the park. In 2 Corinthians 11 and 12, he allows himself to brag a little while defending his position as apostle to the Corinthians against those who were trying to discredit him.
On five occasions he was whipped with 39 stripes by the Jews. Forty stripes were considered the same as a death sentence. Since a person cannot be killed more than once (obviously), if a person was whipped 40 times, they could not be punished any more, but if they were whipped only 39 times, then they could be punished again later. He was beaten with rods three times. He was stoned once. Some scholars think this may have been the occasion of his being caught up to “Paradise” as he relates in 2 Corinthians 12. He was shipwrecked three times, and apparently on one of those times he spent a day and a night in the water. Now these are not the type of adventures that most people put on their bucket list, but Paul’s testimony was that he took pleasure in them for the cause of Christ.
Traveling With Kingdom Purpose
Paul did express a desire to travel. In Romans 1 and 15 he wrote to the people at Rome that he wanted to visit them on his way to Spain.[^4] But I don’t think his purpose for the trip was just to see the scenery, although that has its place. The purposes he mentions for visiting the Romans was to enjoy their company and be refreshed together with them.[^5] And his purpose for visiting Spain was, undoubtedly, to have some fruit among them as he did among the other Gentiles, as he wrote to the Romans.[^6]
I enjoy traveling, and I have been fortunate enough to travel through a number of different states and countries. However, my challenge to us is that we don’t look at traveling and sightseeing as an end in itself, but that we think first about God and His kingdom and how our desire to travel fits into the larger picture of seeking first the Kingdom of God.