The Moral Bucket List
It occurred to me that there were two sets of virtues, the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. The résumé virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love?
We all know that the eulogy virtues are more important than the résumé ones. But our culture and our educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light. Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character.
Email Subscription:
Thank you for posting this article and suggesting that we read it.
Brooks’ comments are right-on and quite insightful, so much so that I intend to order his book “The Road to Character,” which was just released three days ago and in which this op-ed piece is contained.
So much to think about; so many sentences to be dissected and discussed; so many phrases worthy of memorizing. All of which are written in an easily readable as well as comprehensible style.
But, to me, the most important aspect of this article is that I can affirm with the utmost honesty and in the most humble as well as totally and completely appreciative manner, that I have not only heard each of these major points made before in the sermons and classes you have shared and taught over the last ten years but that I have seen and continue seeing them lived out in the life you live and in the “words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart” as you encourage others to do the same in order, as John Wesley spoke, that we “strive toward perfection as Christ is perfect.”
Even if we do not name each numbered-entry as did Brooks, thank you for reminding us of the need to not only formulate a Moral Bucket List but to live it, to do it for the sake of others and to “bring God honor and glory.”