What Being Intentional REALLY Means
For those not in the Gospel music world, this may not be as familiar to you but there is a song that has been incredibly successful now for about a year called “Intentional”. The words, say that “all things work for our good because He [God] is intentional…”. It’s a great affirmation for anyone to sing constantly to themselves in order to grow their faith and belief that they are winners regardless because God is in their corner but what I wonder is if people consider the process and length of time that goes behind being intentional.
For example, if you live in an area that is surrounded by fruit trees, plants etc. you have no problem with eating. In fact, you can grab an apple or get some water whenever you feel. However, what if you live in the desert? Well then, you would need to be much more intentional about how you’re going to provide, live and progress. You would need to do research on what can grow where you are. You would need to figure out a way to get an area prepared and appropriate to grow and sustain food. If that cannot happen, you would have to find out how much it would cost to get food to your region and on top of that, what is the best method of transportation to get it there. All of these things take intentional thought and effort but what is greatly important to realize is that all of these things take TIME!
Time is what many people do not consider or anticipate. The time that is typically taken to engage or create something intentionally tends to frustrate people. But that frustration only exist because it is one of the few things in our process that we do not control. It is one of the things we cannot
always predict. And it is not something we can get around. So what do we do about the issue of time in regard to intentional living and our attempts to create intentional success? Perhaps the most advantageous response is to embrace and appreciate the existence of time. Because the mere existence of time is a reminder that something is “working” in the background. And that is good.
Time can work as fuel to your faith if you allow it. This is because faith is the evidence of things that are unseen and time contains the unseen development of your anticipated outcome.
If time were a person, it would be destined to be made one with patience and the two would have children named understanding and success. This complete family of Time + Patience = Understanding and Success is what I encourage you to always keep in mind whenever you get discouraged
or frustrated with the amount of time it takes to do things by intention. If you are truly to accomplish what is “for your good” by being intentional, you’re going to have to accept that it takes time and patience but with those you will achieve understanding and success!