in•ten•tion•al

[in-ten(t)-shə-nəl]
-adjective
1. done on purpose or by design.

I’ve been impressed by God lately about how intentional I am (we are) about life and faith. I had this illustrated somewhat last week while my family and I vacationed in Destin, FL.

Morgan, Becca, and I were just lazily hanging out in the water at the beach on Boogie Boards. It was so relaxing that I almost went to sleep out there…enjoying the coolness of the water and the motion of the waves. It was great. But at some point I opened my eyes to discover that Beth was no longer sitting on the beach reading her book. She had been there the last time I looked, but now she was gone.

I began to scour the beach scene looking for my wife only to discover that she had moved about 50 yards down the beach. She had moved everything! Our chairs, our towels, our cooler…everything! And there she was, just reading her book as if nothing had changed.

And then the thought struck me—Beth hasn’t moved…we have! Just going with the flow, we had allowed the waves to carry us away from where we had been in the beginning. Being the PastorDad that I am, I brought this out to my girls as a true-to-life illustration of how easy it is to drift away from God and His plan for our lives. We have to find our reference point (at the beach, that was Beth / in life, that’s God’s Word in which Christ is the Centerpiece) and work to stay in line with it.

Beth had not moved; we had. God does not move; we do.

Left to ourselves, we will never drift toward a deeper walk with God…or holiness…or evangelism…or obedience. Left to ourselves, we’ll always drift away from God, not closer to Him! We have to be intentional about everything in the Christian life.

Whoever told us that the Christian walk was the easy way wasn’t being truthful. In fact, Jesus said just the opposite: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

This is what God’s been speaking to me about lately. How intentional are we being in our pursuit of Him and His purpose? Are we demonstrating Christ through our lives on purpose? Are we growing deeper in our worship and walk by design? Are we being intentional about reaching out to the 9-in-10 people in Montgomery County who do not know Christ?

OR, are we just lazily hanging out in life…just going with the flow…allowing the waves to carry us away from where we once were with God? I hope God will speak to you like He’s speaking to me. And may we be sensitive enough to His prompting to obey Him wherever He leads us.