Living by Accident or Intention?

Maybe you’ve looked at someone and their success in life and wished that you were born with the golden spoon, silver lining, good genes, famous name, or great heritage. Though someone may be born into a scenario that produces success based on these factors that others wish for, most of us have to work to get to our destination.

How do you win the prize that many are looking for? It’s sort of obvious to me. You work to intentionally arrive at the future stage, and not living your choices by accident. You face the challenges and hurdles with a hunger for success. You work hard to achieve and arrive! But it all comes from hard work! That’s intentional living!

It’s like a talented athlete. Some have good bones, natural skills and genetic disposition that allows them to excel, but that end product still requires much training and hard work to arrive! It is a famous quote by Michael Jordan that sort of states the obvious truth to someone who looks at it from the standpoint of wanting to be as good as him.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” ~Michael Jordan [Source]

Perseverance and a good attitude about your direction are required so you can become what you aspire to achieve. Intentional perseverance and attitude! Not accidentally having what you need to luck through the system so you can arrive! Having a good coach, mentor and support system matters, sure, but you can also succeed in your own right having much of this missing from your life. We see this all the time from stories about some who persevere in spite of obvious limitations and restrictions. They excel at something and we all take hope that there are still miracles of accidents helping some to grow despite the obstacles.

But it still requires intentional living for that person to follow through to success!

It’s like that child I remember reading about that went to a famous violinist and declared, “I want to be just like you!” What are you doing to be like me? “I practice for 30 minutes after school every day!’ Then you don’t want to be like me. If you did, you would practice 8 hours every day, forget friends, relationships, parties, and trips, focus on improving everything you do about yourself so you can perform before thousands without making a mistake! That’s how you get to be like me.

Here’s where our self-limiting reality sets in. Maybe I don’t want to be like the bright stars around us. Maybe I’m content to be simply good and not great. Maybe I simply want to float along in life.

If that’s you, then what are you planning on doing when you retire? There are no pensions and welfare systems to care for everyone the way you think. No! You have to be intentional to plan for the day that you will no long garner a weekly paycheck! You must live intentionally! So says the wisest man, Solomon!

Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise,
Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler,
Provides her supplies in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.
How long will you slumber, O sluggard?
When will you rise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep—
So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man.
(Proverbs 6:6-11 NKJV)

But here’s the important thing. To be great means the same thing as being the shining star. You still have to know where you are going, and intentionally plan your every move and not being content with accidental living.

Back in my younger days I seemingly and accidentally got pointed into technology, and there I spent 33 years of my career working hard on stepping up the experience and corporate ladder. We all find the peak of our existence and then start looking for ways out of the stratosphere (not that I ever got that high!) so we can re-invent ourselves into retirement.

Was the career a good choice? For me, yes. I was told to never go into engineering or computer science because my skills in math were never that great (for a host of reasons that include my inclinations as well as some poor education), but when the door opened I jumped in with both my feet and with every step I kept looking ahead and preparing for the next step!

I wish that I would have prepared spiritually the same way. Yes. A particular calling came early in life but I was distracted with living and the excitement of marriage, family, and career! Ministry, when the door opened again, became my spiritual desire, and I did make some good strides in growth, but much of it came at a time when there were split focus and challenges I seemingly never hurdled over. Have I arrived as high as I could have been? Sure. I’m content with these senior years and can see over my shoulder more clearly than that younger person could see the future. However, had I had some direction (coach, pastor, mentor, teacher, coach) that I would be willing to listen to at a younger point of life there is no telling where I could be today.

This is the rub. You never know what today would be like if only the past contained some different steps and focus! But since they never happened I must take solace that I’m as advanced as I will ever be able to go with senior looking hair staring me back in the mirror each morning.

James Michener, my favorite author, began writing when he was 40, and only quit when he passed at the age of 90.

Michener’s prodigious output made for lengthy novels, several of which run more than 1,000 pages. The author states in My Lost Mexico (1992) that at times he would spend 12 to 15 hours per day at his typewriter for weeks on end, and that he used so much paper, his filing system had trouble keeping up. [Source]

This is what you do when you reach your true purpose in life. You dig in, set the pace, and begin working hard for what you are called to do. At some point, you reach that future pinnacle and know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you intentionally worked hard to arrive. Good Luck and Fortune may have smiled on you but never forget all those hours you intentionally persevered so you could arrive where you are, and then become that great teacher that so many need and start pouring yourself into others so they can someday arrive!

Here’s my thought today. It’s never too late to change from Accidental Living to Intentional Living. The future may be short but there is no time like the present to realign your course with a better direction and purposeful choices. Jesus teaches a parable about all the workers in a vineyard getting the same pay even though some had worked a longer day than those who came to work late in the day. (Matthew 20:1-16) Could it be that the destination (end of the day) is not the focus? It’s the journey you take in life that gives you your ultimate reward. Some will work long and hard and make no more than those who waste their time and only find their calling later in life. Do not focus on this part of the future. Rather, find your calling, make your decision to get started as soon as you know, and work as hard as it takes to make intentional choices for your future.

It was the Apostle Paul who stated (emphasis mine):

But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. (2 Timothy 4:5-8 NKJV)