Our Best Intentions

Dear Friends:

Sometimes our best intentions do not go as planned.

A year ago, I was a college professor with lots of knowledge and plenty of spare change. Today I am an unemployed scribe, with a very sharp pen and an empty bank account.

This afternoon I thought I might do an unplanned random act. As I was heading home from my church, I decided to pull into Wendy's. I remembered they have an awesome new cold coffee drink which my good friend Mark really enjoys.

Mark is suffering from Parkinson's disease. He's far too young to be faced with this and far too kind of a person to not be appreciated. He recently spent countless hours trying to teach me how to use video editing software and I'll probably never be able to fully repay him. So today, on impulse, I thought I'd buy him one of those new Wendy's ice cold coffee drinks.

I pulled into Wendy's and placed my order. The small drink came to $2.53. I got to the window to pay only to realize I had changed handbags the night before. I generally have at least five or six bucks in change at the bottom of my purse. Today my purse was dry but for a dollar bill tucked away in my wallet. How embarrassing!

You know times are tough when all you have tucked away is a one dollar bill. I used to tuck away a twenty. Some folks I know tuck away a fifty or a hundred.

The girl at the window smiled and waved me on through. She told me to enjoy my drink. I was tempted to take a sip but remembered my intent was to bless my friend. I called my friend on the cell phone but got no answer. I kept hitting redial all the way from Malabar to Melbourne -- still no response. The smarter thing would have been to call first. Sometimes I just act before I think.

Still avoiding the temptation to take a taste of the sweet treat beside me, I realized the drink would melt before I could reach my friend. That's when I gave in and took a sip.

As the sweet treat soothed my throat I couldn't help but think how sometimes our best intentions just don't go as planned. Sometimes we set out to do something nice for someone else and realize midway that we just don't have the resources we need to get the job done. We just don't have what it takes to pull it off. Maybe its something huge and we have to step out in faith and trust God totally. Or maybe its something small and we just showed up unprepared. Maybe we didn't take the time to think it through. So we feel silly or stupid or guilty.

Does it mean we should stop trying? I don't think so. It is these times, big or small, that God is able to use someone else to treat us. Sometimes the best thing we can do is step out of the way and admit we missed the mark. When we fess up and admit we blew it, no telling what God may do. Often he will step in and give us blessings we didn't plan for or expect. When he does, we should be willing to receive them without shame.

In God's world blessings are a two-way street. One random act begets another. Even when we are not able to follow through on our own plans, God steps in and does it for us or changes the plan around completely.

I wasn't able to take my friend a cold drink today. But I was able to call and let him know I thought of him. I was still able to show I care. Sometimes thoughts count as much as actions. Letting others know we care is often the best we can do. And that is good enough.

From now on when your best intentions go awry or you find you haven't got the resources to finish what you set out to do, don't get discouraged. Step back, breathe deep, hold on -- it just may be that God has something totally different in mind. Maybe He wants the blessing you tried to send to someone else to bounce back on you.

Blessings,
Cindi (aka POETIC JUSTICE)