Apostle Paul’s Bucket List

Whats kinds of things are on your bucket list? Creative/artistic? Religious? Athletic? Intellectual? Whatever they are, get busy today and achieve/experience something. Photo by Deon Staffelbach.

Bucket Lists were made popular with the movie, The Bucket List. In it two terminally ill men write out a list of things to accomplish or experience before they die.

There are many websites devoted to bucket lists and the completing of them (like Daring to Live Fully). Do you have a bucket list? I have made several. I typically break mine down into categories according to season or interest. Here is my Bucket List Index. 

Below is a tongue-in-cheek list of what the Apostle Paul might have written.

I got the list by looking at his life. I looked at the interesting and noteworthy things he accomplished. Then I put the various events on the list. I made what is known as a reverse or backwards Bucket List.

It is certain that Paul accomplished 30 out of 32 of these items. Read the books of Acts and Corinthians for some of Paul’s biographical details. After some of the items, I put what he did in parentheses.

1. Study with a noted Rabbi (Gamaliel)
2. Become a lawyer
3. Become a Pharisee
4. Be multi-lingual (Hebrew, Greek, Latin)
5. Understand Epicurean and Stoic philosophy
6. Learn  a trade (tent making)
7. Conquer anger problem
8. Visit Rome
9. Have a meaningful spiritual experience
10. Recover from blindness
11. Change first name
12. Get baptized
13. Become an apostle
14. Go on a 3 year desert sabbatical
15. Preach in a synagogue that Jesus is the Son of God and Messiah
16. Be able to show how Old Testament prophecy and covenants were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
17. Sail on a ship (many trips but unfortunately shipwrecked 3 times)
18. Speak to a large crowd (multiple times)
19. Speak to a large crowd in a prime location (Mars Hills)
20. Learn to be content
21. Take a ride in a fish basket
22. Disciple a young preacher (Timothy)
23. Write a meaningful body of work (wrote almost half of New Testament)
24. Be a published author
25. Accept my thorn in the flesh
26. Collect money for a good cause (famine relief )
27. Plant a church (several in Asian Minor and Europe)
28. Preach to Gentiles (multiple times)
29. Meet the Emperor of Rome (Nero)
30. Share the Good News of Christ with a King and Queen (Agrippa and Bernice)
31. Become a missionary
32. Go on a missionary trip (3 in all)
33. Be part of a prison ministry
34. Be a majour influence in the early church
35. Conquer Insomnia (not sure if this ever happened)

Your Turn . . .

• Share if any of the items on this list is a surprise to you. What would you add to the list?
• After reading this list, has your opinion of the Apostle Paul changed?
• Have you ever written a backwards bucket list? I haven’t – yet! Go here to read one person’s experience with this type of assignment.
• Write your own backwards bucket list. Share it with us and also share your experience. I will share mine on my birthday in March and list 57 things.

Related Posts

• Paul Was Normal, Like Us by Charles R. Swindoll at Insight for Living
• 5 Tips for Writing a Reverse Bucket List (Women’s Adventure)
• My Reverse Bucket List (Happy Fit Mama)
• Reverse Bucket List: Look Back Before Looking Forward (Wisebread)
• Use a Reverse Bucket List to Get Motivated (Tangerine Turtle)

Ideas for your own list. Have a look at the following links and copy down the things you’ve done for a reverse list. Or write down things you’d like to do in the future.

• 6 Bucket List Ideas for Women
• 543 Bucket List Ideas (No More Excuses)
• 1000 Bucket List Ideas (Below Zero to Hero)
• 1,250 Ideas for Your Bucket List (Dragos Roua)