tagged 
Grace, Law, knowing God
Grace, Law, knowing God Meditation: Looking up from the Checklist
Monday, January 21, 2013 at 01:37PM 
Once there was a man who lived a life guided by a checklist. He did not always fulfill each item each day, but each and every day the checklist was his guide. All day long, eyes down, he navigated his life according to the inspired advice on the list. The man gained great wealth, and even some reputation among the people of his town, but at the end of his life he was no wiser than at the beginning, because the checklist was not enough. The checklist was his only friend, and he died alone.
Is there anything more handy than a checklist?
The original checklist was ten items long. Eventually it grew to 613. No checklist provides the desires of our hearts, but we cling to our checklists because we like to think they hold the secrets of life itself. We refine the lists, prioritize the lists, interpret our lists, and look down on other people’s lists. We claim to have special insight into the most important items on the list.
Whether God’s Old People or New, it’s so much easier for us to keep our eyes on the clipboard. Give to the poor? Check. Relax one day a week? Check. Sacrifice? Pray? Memorize? Check. Check. Check. The checkmarks fall into a neat line from top to bottom. We start a new page each day. We smile at the winning streaks we piece together, unaware we have won the wrong game.
We like checklists because is it easier to relate to a book of rules than to relate to a living person. Checklists are unchanging and accessible. People are filled with mystery. Checklists are clear and unequivocal. Checklists make plain statements and tell us what to do. People—even perfect people—present nonverbal hints and clues. People are hard to read, but they yield rewards we have never imagined. If we successfully keep a checklist, we have ourselves to thank. If we get to know a person, we discover a world beyond ourselves.
A question, what if we live our lives according the the master checklist, but never meet the Master himself?
Reader Comments (5)
We’re so lost in perfecting the checklist into, “Oh wow, I now know exactly what to do every single moment of the day; I’ve arrived”.
How does one quantitatively arrive at an end when the Father in charge promises no end … eternal … infinite … if we live? We live only through an ever growing quality of love which we can only understand by living within its eternal capacity to give it and take it. There is no working checklist that can become a perfect checklist of our relationships forever except one, Luke 10:25-37.
By the grace of our image we have the freedom of choice and consequence for our relationships to be constructive or destructive to the whole. Without tearing our heart and mind away from the checklist and focusing on a dynamic mutually beneficial relationship with the whole we cannot live. Jesus took the ten and in two like pronouncements of love expanded the law into one constructive check we can review every moment of our life eternally. That to me is the real “Oh Wow” moment when we understand the infinite value in the regulation of love as versus the extremely finite value of regulation according to the letter of the law.
There's a lot to like in your comments, Herm: even as Jesus cut "the list" down to two commandments he directed our focus to the primacy of love. I also like the reminder that we serve an Infinite Father, who is capable of infinite promises, which means our checklists look inadequate next to his largess.
Checklist upside: better time management. Checklist downside: rigid adherence to an agenda without consideration of the other possibilities.
Check list TRUE STORY: For four years I worked a job that required nearly 100% travel. On the plane on the way home I would create a checklist to be sure I made time for everything and not be in a rush and on Sunday evening and on my way to the airport realize something important was not attended to. One time I wrote tongue in cheek, "make love."
I am not at liberty to say what my wife said when she saw that, but suffice it to say I no longer travel.
Nice work! Please come teach a marriage enrichment class at our church! :-)
Its on my checklist.