“Direction -not intention- determines the destination.”
-From The Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley.

I once had a very intelligent friend who I remember saying something like “it’s easiest to change in the midst of change”.  He modified his appearance as he was also embarking on a new spiritual step in his life.  The combination had an effect that still blows my mind today.

I realize that Jess and I are in one of those major windows of opportunity to change, right now.

For her and I, life has been pretty chaotic this past month.  There’s been little time to define who we are or where we’re going.  So far, we’ve been coasting on the previous vision and just pushing forward to get the essentials taken care of (a functioning house and jobs).  Hopefully this season will be over in a few more weeks though, and we can recall the focus:  “what are we doing and why?”

As I’ve been reading Andy’s words, a lot of things hit home.  Wanting something bad enough doesn’t cut it.  Almost every time Jess and I are on a physical road trip to somewhere, we have a habit of making sure we’re also on a “life road” to somewhere too:  agreeing on our current goals.  We come up with plans that we feel really good about for money/jobs, kids someday…  and usually prominently, for Ananias.  We pray about it and then we’re ready to move ahead by the time our road trips are over.

Then, most of the time in the past, we’ve done a whole lot of sitting around for weeks or months afterwards, hoping that it’s working and hiding from our own common sense and discipline…  because we don’t feel like it.

On the brighter side, one thing that I see Andy missing (so far) is the fact that God has the divine power and love to take us places we didn’t “earn” with our lifestyles.  But regardless, I don’t want to take that for granted …but also in a different light, the more we live by our intentions (i.e. actually doing things that agree with those goals), the more He tends to multiply our opportunities/ fruitfulness/ momentum with His miraculous confirmation and ability to work things together for our good.

I’ll never forget the outcome of the 2009-contest-deal, and the fact that it was (on our end) the result of simply recording a little video.

As we rediscover who we are and what we’re doing in this new foreign place, I want to be committed to us doing “our part”, instead of constantly wondering how the years seem to fly by with such little progress.  I realize we could be in at least two very different places based on our “direction” over time, regardless of our intentions over time.

I’m both realizing and praying that we can take appropriate steps, in sync with the speed and direction that the Lord is longing for our lives to travel.  I know He has some amazing plans, but also the pitfall of our free will working against them.