Is Your Checklist Stopping You From Living Out God’s Calling?

Published: August 18, 2025

By Mallory Mattingly

Tim Tebow encouraged his followers to “stop living for the checklist…and start living with a calling” in a recent Instagram post.

“What if we wrote our checklist out where it wasn’t my checklist of what I accomplished, but my checklist of who I could care for today?” Tebow began the video. “It’s a completely different mindset that we wake up with. It’s not about what I can do, but who I can do it for. And when I get to the end of my life, what am I going to be proud of?”

“Oh man, I got my checklist done. I had my dos and my don’ts. And yet, I didn’t help all these people that God put in my path,” he continued. “I believe that part of our purpose was to encounter, love and care for them, but I just had the wrong mindset. I had the wrong vision, I had the wrong lenses, and ultimately, that led to the wrong heart posture.”

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A post shared by Tim Tebow (@timtebow)

“At the end of your life, you won’t be proud of how many boxes you checked,” the former NFL player added in the caption. “You’ll remember the people you loved, helped, and showed up for.”

Tebow’s message echoes that of Paul in Colossians 3:1-3: “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:33-34, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

All the material things of this earth will vanish and fade away.

Oscar winner Denzel Washington put it bluntly: “You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse…Can’t take it with you. Egyptians tried it; all they got was robbed.”

When we set our eyes on eternity, our focus shifts from how we can make our lives better to how we can help others.

Life is not about checking things off our to-do lists or just getting from one place to the next. Rather, it’s about loving God, loving people and sharing the good news of salvation with those God puts in our path.

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