Good Intentions

It happened again to me last night and this morning: We went to bed as usual, and as I laid down I plugged my phone in and said, “I’m going to get up a little earlier tomorrow.” I told my wife that 4:30 sounded right, and I promptly set the alarm on my phone. Before I put the phone down, I said “You know what, I think I can still accomplish everything that needs to be done if I get up at 5:00”… so I changed the alarm setting to 5:00. Belinda didn’t seem overly confident that I would actually follow through, but encouragingly (at least that is how it appeared to me) said “right”….

This morning the alarm went off at 5:00 and I jumped up and grabbed the phone as if it were the enemy. Without wasting a second I immediately hit the snooze button and said to myself, “I’ll just get up at 5:10…”

From out of nowhere the alarm went off again and before I knew what I was doing I had hit the snooze button once more.

The third time it went off I realized what was going on and it was now 5:30, so I simply turned the alarm off and I told myself that I would get up at 6:00.

6:00 came and went and before I knew what happened I heard the house alarm system going through its automatic shutdown which I knew is always at 6:30… and I jumped out of bed as if shot from a cannon. Belinda was already doing dishes, the coffee was made, lights were on and for a military guy I was feeling as if my day was already half over and that I was a complete and utter failure. A day that I had planned on starting earlier than normal, a day that I had planned on doing more than what I normally would do, was now off to a horrible start.

Nothing that I had planned to do, that I had hoped to do, or that I might have wanted to do had materialized.

Thankfully mornings like this are rare. But yet in a positive way, I truly did have good intentions. You see I knew what needed to be done. I knew what I was capable of doing. I knew the requirements to be successful, and I even knew the benefits of following through with my plans.

But my good intentions were not enough.

Have you ever had days like that? Let’s widen the scope a little, have you had situations in life like that? What if we go a little bit further, has there been things spiritually speaking, that you have had good intentions about, yet… have just not followed through with?

1 Samuel 15 gives a story about King Saul, that is far more tragic than my horrible morning. Saul was appointed King and was off to a good start, yet what we read in this chapter reveals that good starts, good ideas, and good intentions didn’t quite get it done when it came to living in the manner that God had commanded. I encourage you to take some time and read the account. In the chapter he disobeyed, he lied, he mislead and at the end of the story we find that the Prophet Samuel came and told him that God had rejected him and that he would be removed from the throne.

An awesome start, but an awful ending.

What about your life? Has God spoken to you about something that you plan to work on or do, but yet today if you had to answer honestly you would say, “I’ve yet to do that.” Friend, can I encourage you to act! Don’t delay, instead just obey. Act on what He has been speaking to you about. The longer we procrastinate the easier it becomes to settle for other things. Someone has said it well with the statement, “Without action, the best intentions in the world are nothing more than that: intentions.”

May our prayer be: Father, help us today to live with a life that is pleasing to you. A life of action and of purpose. A life that points others to you. Help us to rise above the level of good intentions.