Do you live by intention or by your agenda? I admit that for most of my life, I have lived by my agenda. What is the difference? My friend Heather from Heart Soul Mind Yoga recently did an awesome job explaining this:
For 6 magical years my family and I held annual passes to the happiest place on earth. We lived just over an hour from Disneyland and we estimate that we spent over 150 days with Mickey and Minnie over those 6 years.
And if we spent over 150 days in the parks, then you know we must’ve spent nearly a THOUSAND hours standing in lines.
Our favorite way to pass the time in line was to chat with the families around us and in speaking to these families from all over the world, I discovered:
there are two ways to approach a family trip to Disneyland: with an agenda or with an intention.
Some may think it’s splitting hairs to differentiate between an agenda & intention, but I think there is an important difference.
An agenda is a concrete plan with a concrete outcome.
For some Disneyland parents, the agenda might be “ride all the rides” or “meet all the characters” or “see all the shows” or, let’s be honest, for most, it’s “ride all the rides, meet all the characters AND see all the shows.” It’s not that I blame the parents, their 3 day Park Hopper tickets cost more than our annual pass. But the commonality I noticed between agenda driven parents is that they are tripping over their own feet, dragging their kids from ride to ride, denying them trips to the bathroom, all under the goal of checking things off their agenda.
An intention, on the other hand, is less concrete, less tangible, but no less real.
An intention is a heart space, the purpose or spirit in which we do things, it’s holding the results firmly but staying flexible about how you achieve those results.
Intention driven Disneyland parents wish to create a feeling for their trip. They want their kids to feel the magic and wonder that comes with being at the happiest place on earth. Intention driven Disneyland parents are open to walking slowly, pausing to point out hidden details to their kiddos, and taking breaks for wonder.
I believe that when we look at the life of Jesus we see a life of intention, rather than agenda.
Jesus’s life was built on the foundational intention of love and rescue. This wasn’t His agenda, this was His heart. If love and rescue had been His AGENDA, we would see examples of Him being pushy, forcing His way on those around Him. Instead, because love & rescue was His intention, they are the threads interwoven in every interaction He shared with those around Him.
Hours before Jesus was betrayed, the gospels record some time he spent in prayer. Matthew 36 Jesus said to His disciples “My soul is crushed with horror and sadness to the point of death . . . stay here . . . stay awake with me.”
He went forward a little, and fell face downward on the ground, and prayed, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup be taken away from me. But I want your will, not mine.” Three times throughout the night He prayed these words, asking the Father to somehow change the course of the next several days.
Jesus holds His intention tightly-honoring the Father through rescue and love. But He holds the agenda loosely-He is open to whatever the Father calls Him to, be it the cross or something else.
When I consider this night in light of the entire life of Jesus, I see the difference between agenda and intention. I think identifying this difference & living it out is a key practice in living the Jesus way.
Take a moment to consider:
How can you approach your days with an intention vs. an agenda? How can you approach other people with an intention vs. an agenda? How can you approach your relationship with God with an intention vs. an agenda?
How different would our days, relationships, and prayer life look if we set an intention for them & let that intention permeate our agenda?
During the many years I lived by my agenda, the “fruit” of my life often looked like this:
- Getting angry when others didn’t live up to my expectations
- Working myself into a frenzy to be “perfect”
- Untold numbers of sleepless nights where my anxiety ran wild.
My life’s intention is more like:
- Love others and Christ has loved me
- Be there for others when they need me, while not forsaking my own needs and health
- Grow in my relationship with God so that I live life WITH him, rather than FOR him.
Honestly, there are still days where I live more by my agenda than my intention. But I am working on this. We are all works in progress. God doesn’t give up on me. He is infinitely patient with me, and I am so grateful.
Question: What would living your life by your intention rather than your agenda look like?
May you feel the Lord’s presence and love today and every day.
Caroline
