Introspection: Lessons in Intentionality

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Lessons in Intentionality

Let's not get tired of doing good, because in time we'll have a harvest if we don't give up.

Galatians 6:9 (CEB)

This is your life: Are you who you want to be?

This is your life: Are you who you want to be?

This is your life: Is it everything you dreamed that it would be

When the world was younger and you had everything to lose?

From "This Is Your Life" by Switchfoot

Late last year, writer and professor of psychology Richard Beck remarked that "the critical missing ingredient for so many Christians and churches trying to live into the way of Jesus" is intentionality.¹  He suggests that if we want to be spiritually fruitful - becoming "more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled" - we must be intentional about it,² engaging in practices meant to help us to cultivate the Fruits of the Spirit.³  I think that Beck has hit the nail on the head, for, in my own life, I've learned more and more about the importance of living with intentionality.

I have learned the hard way how hazardous it is to live without intentionality.  When I was in college, I failed to do the hard work of figuring out what I really wanted to do with my life, and, soon after I graduated, I ended up working at a job I utterly hated.  Looking back, I count that job as a blessing, since it gave me the wake-up call I desperately needed.  If we simply float through life with no sense of direction, we will most likely end up where we do not want to go, not unlike a jellyfish that washed up on the beach.  In the words of Yogi Berra, "If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there."

On the other hand, I've found that, when I put forth the effort to grow, God met me where I was and blessed my efforts.  A few years ago, I began taking time every morning to read Scripture.  Last year, this time of Bible study became a time for prayer as well.  I've known for most of my life how important it is to pray and read Scripture, but I did not do such things regularly until I was intentional about it.  I had to set aside time in the morning, setting my alarm clock to go off earlier and struggling harder against the gravitational force drawing my head to my pillow.  I had to follow a reading plan to keep me on track with my Bible study, and I had to follow a liturgy to keep me on track with my prayers.

I've found that there are at least two important components in intentionally doing the work to grow spiritually: consistence and persistence.

If we want to grow spiritually, we must be consistent, following the same practices each day so that they became a regular part of our lives.  If we want to become physically stronger, we must consistently work our muscles.  Likewise, if we want to cultivate a particular spiritual virtue, we must consistently practice that virtue.  This year, I have decided to make it a priority to cultivate the virtue of gratitude.  To accomplish this goal, I've made it a practice to record things for which I can be grateful, at the end of each day.  The exercise itself gives me the opportunity to practice gratitude, and, by practicing gratitude consistently, I hope to become more inclined to be grateful.

If we want to grow spiritually, we must also be persistent, climbing back onto the proverbial horse every time we fall off.  If you fail in your spiritual practices one day, just start again the next.  There are still mornings when I end up rushing through my prayers, but all I can do is to try harder the next morning.  If we keep getting back on the horse every time we fall, we will find ourselves falling off less and less.

We can know what it means to be a spiritually fruitful person, but such knowledge means very little to us if we do not put it into practice.  If we want to grow more into the people God created us to be, we must be intentional about it.  However it is you want to grow, dear reader, may you put forth the effort to grow, and may God make your efforts fruitful.

Notes:

1. Richard Beck.  "The Most Important Word in Christianity: Part 1, We Are Drifting."  Experimental Theology, 11/06/2017.
2. Richard Beck.  "The Most Important Word in Christianity: Part 2, The Missing Ingredient."  Experimental Theology, 11/07/2017.
3. Richard Beck.  "The Most Important Word in Christianity: Part 4, Fruitful Intentionality."  Experimental Theology, 11/09/2017.

The photograph of the oranges and orange blossoms was taken by Ellen Levy Finch and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.