Monday, August 5, 2013

Intentional Versus Good Intentions

Friday's Bonus was thrown together with little premeditation or intention and I'm fairly certain that my intended message did not come across as I would have premeditated it. (You English Majors diagram that sentence!)

Fear not, though! Shoe and I spent about four hours on it Saturday afternoon! If only, we could have taped this scholarly conversation and broadcast it on youtube, so that you could all see two egomaniacs engaged in the highest form of "square-rootin!" It was GLORIOUS! I just wish I could remember what we said!

Here's the bottom line on Friday's Post. I purposely used the words "intentional" and "premeditated" as synonyms. I believe they mean the same thing. I think any dictionary or thesaurus will support my stance. Thus, the title referring to premeditation and the post referring to intentionality accomplished what I intended.

At the end of the day, both these words evoke an immediate NEGATIVE response. It's just hard not to hear the word "murder" in your head when someone says "premeditated." In the same way, football fans hear the word "grounding" when someone says the word "intentional." Both negative things. Albeit, one more negative than the other.

On Friday, the question that was plaguing me was "Am I living my life INTENTIONALLY?"

Teens take SAT Prep Classes because they intend to score well. Parents put away money on a monthly basis because they intend to pay for college. Employees contribute to 401(k) plans because they intend to retire.

Blah! Blah! Blah! I'm now as bored with this as you are!

The challenge that faces me is how to be INTENTIONAL in my daily walk? Is it possible to be intentional in worship? Am I intentional in my prayer life? What does being intentional look like when I am serving others?

What about health? Intention in diet. Intention in exercise. Intention in rest. Intention in recreation.

In Randy Travis's sophomore album, he croons in one of his songs, "And I here tell, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions....."

I am not trying to create a "semantics" discussion. I am afraid, however, that "good intentions" have gotten such a bad rap that I've forgotten the need to live life intentionally.






1 comment :

Unknown said...

If our intention is to love and forgive everyone - and ourselves - we are living in harmony with God. If our inention is to BE the Jesus - and SEE the Jesus - in every single human being, we are creating from authentive power.

If our intention is to value money over people, and we are willing to do "whatever it takes" for ourselves without consideration of others, we are creating chaos. There will never be enough $$ to live happy, joyous and free.

There is the reality of cause and effect. Whatever we "give" to others is what we "get".

God does not like anyone mistreating followers of Jesus. When it comes back around, God is not going to just spank our little Spiritual bottoms. He is going to do a GRAND SLAM to get our attention back on HIM!!!