Top Three Things

I can't remember where I first read this - I think it was a Phil Yancey book - but it came up in conversation again tonight with friends.  It goes like this:
In a large sample US survey of elderly retired persons with nothing to lose from being completely honest and frank, the question was asked, 'Now that you're close to the end of your lives, looking back, what would you have changed?'
The Top Three Things were:
1. I would have made more time for relationships.
2. I would have taken more risks in life. 
3. I would have done more things that lived on after I died. 
My summary of these is:
1. Relationships
2. Passions
3. Significance
It seems to me that these mirror closely the biblical perspective on the meaning and purpose of existence.
We have been created by a relational God for relationships.  And lives that prioritise career over family, or ambition over friendship, end up in a lonely bitter regretful place.  No one has ever said to me at their deathbed, 'I wish I spent more time at the office'. 
Lives that stick to 'safe' and 'secure' paths - the career trajectory, the expected and traditional route of financial security or job opportunity - can often be not just unadventurous, but ultimately a poor reflection of the person that God has gifted you to be.  What are the specific gifts, talents and passions the Lord has given you?  What decisions will you take to prioritise good stewardship of those?  Those decisions will often be contrary to the received wisdom of what a decent or safe career looks like.  No great adventurer, inventor or pioneer in their field was characterised by doing the non-risky career-advancing thing at the time. 
Ultimately, we each have the average three score years and ten.  But at the close, our thoughts turn to the matter of significance.  What has been the meaning of my life?  What achievement or legacy am I leaving behind?  What will live on, after my death?  Is the world a better place for my having passed through it?  
The remarkable thing about the Christian God is that He chooses to use us to achieve His eternal purposes.  So our lives can make a difference for eternal things.  Actually, it's the first two Things, Relationships and Passions, that make up the key components of any Significance that we might hope to have.  See the Parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke 16 for example!  
Relationships.  Passions.  Significance.  I hope you know what your's are in your allotted three score years and ten.