“All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.”

There is a list for everything these days.  We partially (or even more so) determine what we read, listen and watch by lists that others create.  We decide what companies we want to work for by lists.  Buzzfeed is on their way to building a media force to be dealt with on the lists they create.  And, we all like it when we, or people we know show up on a list that is positive recognition of some sort. Blogger, Seth Godin, wrote recently of how to get on the “short list”, which seems to be what every company would like to be on.  He says, “The secret of getting on the shortlist is doing your best work fearlessly for a long time before you get on the list, and (especially) doing it even if you’re not on the list.”  It’s good advice and we can take it to heart that to make it to a list that will build our reputation and visibility that we need to work hard at what we are good at doing, stick with it, and continue to improve along the way.  None of which, is easy to do.

There is a list in Heaven.  It is the Book of Life.  It is the list we all want to be on and the only one that we should care about.  It is eternal, and worth all of our sacrifices.  Jesus said it was hard to get to the Kingdom of God, but not because it is difficult or diligent work for earned recognition, but instead it is hard because we must surrender our earthly ways and ourselves to Him. That, we all know is hard, but that acceptance of the gift He has given to us, is the way to His list, which we can be thankful is open to all.  Consider today which lists matter to us and which really don’t.

Reference: Revelation 3:5 (New Living Translation)