Think About it -- To Will and To Do

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I have written before about Bruce; my first boss (and mentor). Every community has a legend; he remains a living legend in ours.

I recently made a new acquaintance in my hometown who is into sports. He owns one of the local restaurants, decorated like a Sports Bar.

When he discovered I worked for Bruce 50 years ago, he said, “that guy could have been one of the greatest athletes of all times.” I agreed, but clarified that sports were never his intention. Making money was his intention and he did it better than anyone I’ve ever known. He was a man of his word because it was right for business. He was persistent in physical proficiency because endurance was needed to succeed in his business. Every nickel he spent or saved was directly related to his number one intention – making money.

When you live each day with intentionality, there’s almost no limit to what you can do. You can transform yourself, your family, your community, and your nation.

John C. Maxwell

To best apply Maxwell’s quote above, one would live every minute of every day, perform every action of the day’s activities, and take captive every thought of the day’s considerations, with intentionality.

If you can do that, there’s almost no limit to what you can do. 

Things don’t “just happen.” Bad things or good things often result due to the application (or lack) of intentionality. 

When you drive over a bridge, think of how that bridge got there. It was a series of intentional acts. It didn’t just occur to someone, then (by the power of positive thinking), appear. 

 

Think About it

The word “intention” has been mangled into an improper association with failure. True intention however, is “a determination to act in a certain way: resolve.” [i] An idea without discipline is nothing more than wishful thinking. The road to hell is not paved with good intentions, it’s paved with wishful thinking.

Wishful thinking and intentionality should never be allowed into the same room. They are incompatible. Intention is not lazy. It is “to will and to do.”

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”[ii]

The degree to which you are prepared to face and stop calamity at your ministry is directly related to how intentionally you prepare for it.

 

[i] Merriam Webster

[ii] Philippians 2:13 (KJV)

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