Letting Go of the Checklist


Daily checklists are great. Checklists feel safe and keep things balanced. Checklists remind us about those things that we need to do and can’t forget. Checklists keep up productivity.

Checklists are great, at least when your aim is productivity.

But not all of life is about productivity.

If you’re married or have children, you know that checklists don’t always work out all that well. Relationships and humanity have a way of making a mockery of checklists.

Not if your spirituality is to look more like a relationship and less like a growth chart.

I’ve put a lot of faith in checklists, either my own idealistic ones, or ones I’ve borrowed from others. I’ve realized that I’m usually more concerned with my checklists than anyone else is. I’m learning to set those down, fearfully, in hopes that what is lost in striving will be made up for in relationship.

“I’m all for moderation but sometimes it seems
Moderation itself is a kind of extreme.” – Andrew Bird


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