INTENTIONAL. There it was, plastered to the wall on both sides of the stage in six inch block letters…my least favorite word.  And I would have to stare at it…for hours…every Sunday and every Wednesday…for fifty-two weeks.  Just days before, while celebrating the new year with friends, I commented on how much I disliked this word and hoped it wasn’t our pastor’s word of the year.  As a writer, words are important to me.  They hold meaning.  They hold character and personality.  They should be used selectively.  Knowing that you have to stare at your least favorite word for an entire year, let’s just say it doesn’t exactly evoke feelings of eager anticipation.  

So why all the angst over one silly word?  The truth is, the word intentional has always left me feeling simultaneously lacking and overwhelmed.  I have always felt like being intentional meant that I have to be intentional about everything all at once.  I need to intentionally eat healthier, exercise, spend time with my kids, nurture their hearts, date my husband, volunteer in ministry, pray, read The Word of God.  The list goes on…and on…and on.  It literally never ends.  It makes my head swim.  I feel like the only possible way to be intentional about all of these things is to schedule every waking minute of every day to the point that the very idea of being intentional makes me GOL (groan out loud).

That is not the life God intended us to live.  

So what should intentionality look like? To answer that question, we need to consider what intentionality is not.

Jeremiah 10:21 reads:  “The shepherds of my people have lost their senses; they never thought to ask what the Eternal would have them do.  So now they are in trouble, and all their flocks are scattered” (The Voice).  Another version of the same verse says, “For the shepherds have become dull-hearted, And have not sought the Lord; Therefore they shall not prosper…” (NKJV).  

Without direction, intentionality becomes dull, holds no purpose, and bears no fruit. I simply can’t be intentional about every area of life at the same time, nor should I be.  Just like a baby learns to crawl before he walks, intentionality comes in small steps that grow over time.  By the same token, just as one infant army crawls and another uses all fours, intentionality for each of us will develop in its own way and in its own time as we each seek the Lord about where to begin.

In that same chapter of Jeremiah, verses 23-24 read, “It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.  O Lord, correct me, but with justice.”  One definition of the Hebrew word for correct is to instruct, to train.  With the Father’s guidance, intentionality becomes instruction for living the abundant life Christ came to give (John 10:10).

Friend, are you tired of trying to live with intentionality in every avenue all at once?  Are you overwhelmed and exhausted by trying to do too many good things at the same time?  Give yourself grace and ask the Father, what intentional action should I take to move forward in this season? Then, obey His leading and let the rest go.

-Liz Cox