According to Ken Keis, President and founder of “Living
on Purpose, ” a Canadian consulting resource group, 95% to 97% of all
people live their lives on autopilot . . . he claims that the vast
majority, nearly all of us, don't consciously even think about most of the
things we do each day.
This gets to the heart of my teaching on the power of
intentionality. While intentionality is a central concept in
philosophy, it is also central to living a life of faith. We learn
this primarily from what we know about God. God was intentional in
sending Jesus. The bible says it was because of His love for mankind
that He sent His Son. Jesus was so intentional in going to the
cross at Calvary that the Bible says he “set his face towards Jerusalem” (Luke
9:51). In more modern translations it says Jesus “resolutely set out
for Jerusalem.” (New International Version)
Living an intentional life is all about living a life on
purpose, not by happenstance.
There are three keys to learning how to live intentional. In
understanding these three keys, any individual will discover the power of
intentionality
Key #1 – Remember that you were created for a purpose:
The very first chapter of Pastor Rick Warren’s “Purpose
Driven Life” says clearly that “It’s not about you”. These are
actually the very first words in his book. He goes on to tell
us that there are actually five purposes that each man, each woman have
that are all given by God. These purposes include Purpose #3
(to become like Christ) and purpose #4 (To serve God).
These two purposes alone can provide a day’s worth of
intentionality, every day.
Key #2 - Strive to have more impact on the
culture around you than the culture has on you.
Culture can be defined as including 1) Language, 2)
Symbols, 3) Borders and 4) Values. As we travel
internationally, we quickly can see the differences in culture as soon as we go through customs and immigration and are greeted by the border agent who
speaks a unique language. The country has it’s own unique symbols
and often the values vary greatly from country to country or from region or
group. When my kids were young, they often wanted to go
places, have friends or attend activities that their mother and I felt were not
beneficially. I remember telling my daughter that she could go and
participate anywhere when she had more impact on the people and places than they had on
her.
Key #3 – Know and live your mission.
Each of us has been given not only a mission but also
many missions over our lifetime. Often, these missions are but for a
season. A young mother, for example, has no greater mission
than the care and nurturing of her children. This mission takes
priority over all others but lasts but for a season. It is the
mission where we focus our time and our energy. We learn
quickly that all else either aids in the development of the mission or is a
distraction. A life of intentionality identifies each, embraces the one and
dismisses the other.
Our present missions may be the greatest key in living a
life of intentionality. Mission intentionality goes beyond
what we are doing or even how we may be doing it and answers the question
why. When we know why we (teach, preach, lead, buy, sell,
visit, fish, bowl, swim, love, help, create, direct, manage, etc.) we have the
key to the power of intentionality. In this, we not only live
a life of intentionality but also find our purpose and our passion.
