Rev. Kevin M. Pleas

Romans 7:15-21 June 14, 2009

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.

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A couple of days ago, Pam was sitting out in our great room reading. I came home from work and was bumping around in the kitchen. She asked me if I would go into the cupboard for one of the little Dove chocolates we both like and throw her a piece, so I did. I didn't really intend to hit her with it, but that didn't make her feel any better. Fortunately she wasn't looking in my direction when it bounced off the side of her face. Sorry dear.

I was immediately reminded of a time a few years ago; vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. We were walking out on a little stretch of beach in Oak Bluffs between the Ferry Dock and the Breakwater. The ground was covered with small stones and, being a typical guy, I started lobbing them as far out into the water as I could; something like thirty or forty yards. Right out where the stones were splashing down, about half a dozen seagulls were floating up and down on the swells. Pam said to me, "Don't do that. You're going to hit one of those birds." I turned to her and said, "Come on. The chance of me actually hitting one of those birds at this distance has got to be a million to one." Of course, the very next stone I threw bounced right off the top of the head of one of the birds. I can still hear that hollow "thunk" sound it made. Fortunately, the bird didn't seem much the worse for wear. He flew off shaking his head, and I was much humbled. Wouldn't it have been nice if I had thought of the seagull before I threw the chocolate? It seems the only time I can actually hit something is when I don't intend to.

Usually, whenever the subject of "good intentions" comes up, the first thing we think of is that old saying about the road to hell being paved with them. The idea seems to be that the best of what we intend to do either never gets put into action, or doesn't turn out the way we planned. Either way, the outcome is the same. Good intentions lead to bad results, which is why they make such nice paving stones for those headed for, shall we say, a warmer climate.

But we hardly ever hear about good intentions that do bear fruit. Sometimes we intend to do something good and, lo and behold, something good actually does happen. I might presume, for instance, that you intended to come to church this morning, and here you are, how about that. I intend to ride my bike in the TREK next week. Barring any unforeseen complications, I'd say there is a pretty high probability that I will, in fact, fulfill that intention by riding in the TREK next week.

If you think about it, isn't it obvious that we are in a nearly constant process of intending to do things and then doing them? I think of everyday things like dishes, laundry and mowing the lawn. But it's also true of bigger things like getting through college or finding the right person to marry. We form an intention in our minds and then carry it out. Of course, things don't always work out the way we plan. Like most people, I've been intending to lose about ten pounds for quite a long time now. That doesn't seem to be working out so well, despite all the exercise I've been getting. I like to think the jury is still out, but the point is, good intentions have gotten a bad rap. When they don't work out we knowingly trot out the old platitude about the road to hell, but when they do work out, which is, in fact, most of the time, they don't get the credit they deserve.

Why is that? Well, think of Paul's message in his letter to the Romans. At one point he says, "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.... I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.... I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand." Sounds a lot like his good intentions were going awry doesn't it? I do think most of us can relate to this. It's easy to become frustrated with ourselves when things don't go the way we want them to. But has it ever occurred to you that the man wasn't giving himself much credit?

Apart from Jesus himself, Paul was the single most influential person in the establishment of the Christian faith. He devoted his entire life, after his conversion, to planting and nurturing churches all around the Mediterranean basin, and for his efforts he was often cursed, beaten, chased from one town to another, and ultimately arrested and killed. Yet he managed to accomplish in a few short years more than most people will accomplish in a lifetime. That is, he managed to fulfill a high proportion of the "good intentions" he had for his life and ministry. Still, in this very telling passage from Romans, we find him beating up on himself for those things that weren't working out, while completely ignoring his successes. It's a question of focus isn't it. He could have chosen to tune in to the things in his life that were going well, but he chose instead to focus on the places where he was stuck. Much of the time, we do the same thing don't we.

Let me share something with you here. I once read a book by Aldous Huxley that made quite an impression on me. Without going in to a lot of detail, one of the key insights of the book is that we normally think the way the human brain works is that it gathers in information from the outside world and helps us make sense of it. But, Huxley said, that isn't actually what's happening. The amount of information available to us from the outside world at any given moment is always completely overwhelming. If we simply tried simply to take it all in we would quickly blow a gasket.

There's a scene from the last Indiana Jones movie in which the bad guy, actually a woman in this case, is standing in the presence of a group of aliens who are, apparently, filled with all the wisdom of the universe. They ask her what she wants to know, and she says, "I want to know everything, everything." At which point the aliens proceed to so completely fill her mind with information that she literally has a melt down. It was a fun movie, if you like that sort of thing. That's Huxley's point. We can only take in so much information.

In light of this, Huxley said that rather than gathering in all that information, the primary function of our mind is to screen out information. It is to greatly reduce the amount of information that we take in. It is to filter out much of the world and allow into our consciousness only that small portion of reality that we can manage. What this means to me is that how the world presents itself to us has everything to do with the filters we have in place. As Paul Simon put it in one of his songs, "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." Simply put, we can't take everything in, it's not possible, so whether we want to or not, we are constantly disregarding much of what the world throws at us. But we don't just screen things out at random. Our filters act according to our expectations. They act according to our intentions. A man doesn't just hear what he wants to hear. He hears what he expects to hear. He hears what he intends to hear.

Intention is actually a very powerful force in our lives. When we form an intention for ourselves, we are actually shaping the reality in which we live. We're not simply at the mercy of fate. We're choosing - intentionally - a direction for ourselves, and allowing our subconscious filters to help us move in that direction. We allow our filters to let in the information we need to accomplish our goals and screen out what isn't necessary. Of course, just because we intend something doesn't mean it's automatically going to happen. But it seems obvious that we're much more likely to get where we're going if we have some idea of where we would like to go.

Let me give you an example. Jim Carey, the actor and comedian, "went to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of being in the movies. He came from Canada and his family was so poor they were actually homeless for a while, but he was determined to make something of himself. One night in 1990 he got in his car and drove to the top of the Hollywood Hills so that he could have a better view of the city. While overlooking the city, he took out his checkbook and wrote himself a check in the amount of ten million dollars; he postdated the check for Thanksgiving 1995, (five years later); wrote the words 'Acting Services Rendered' in the memo section, signed the check and placed it in his wallet to carry with him. In 1995 he received his first humongous paycheck, a check in the amount of $7 million for his role in the film Dumb & Dumber. Later that year he was paid in excess of $10 million for Batman. 'It wasn't about the money,' [Carey said] 'I knew if I was making that much, I'd be working with the best people on the best material. That's always been my dream.'" (Major in Success, by Patrick Combs. Page 32)

Intentions create reality. That is a true statement. But before you all go running out to write yourselves ten million dollar checks, I'd like to point out that it isn't quite that easy. It worked for Jim Carey because he had it in himself to make that kind of dream come true. He did need to have a good intention, but he also needed the talent and drive and good fortune to turn his intention into a reality. The realization of our good intentions involves more than simply having them. It also involves lining them up with the talents and drives and interests that God has placed at our disposal. Realizing our good intentions isn't merely a matter of deciding we deserve to have whatever we might want, it also has to do with being willing to go where God wants us to go.

There was a very interesting study done by a man named Srully Blotnick. He decided to follow fifteen hundred, middle class workers for a period of 20 years to see how they did in their careers. The results of his study can be found in his book Getting Rich Your Own Way. In a survey he did at the beginning of his study he found that eighty-three percent of the workers "chose their career based on making the most money. They hoped to get rich fast in order to later do work they really wanted to. Seventeen percent of the workers chose their careers out of passion - figuring they would worry about the money later. At the end of the 20 years, there were 101 millionaires from the entire group. All but one of the millionaires - 100 out of 101 - were from the 17 percent who had chosen to follow their passion. The other 83 percent who were trying hard to get rich fast spent 20 years making only modest earnings, in jobs they didn't particularly like." (Major in Success, by Patrick Combs. Page 4)

Now isn't that interesting? There are an awful lot of "success gurus" out there trying to earn a living by telling people they can be and have anything they want. But, obviously, that isn't quite true. If it were true, wouldn't just about everybody be rich and famous? The truth is, we are susceptible to people who come along with this kind of message, not because the message is true, but because we want so much for it to be true. Apparently though, it isn't enough to simply decide you want to have a lot of money. What's far more important, I believe, is that we do what we enjoy, using the gifts God has given each of us and acting out our best intentions in ways that are in harmony with what God has especially in mind of each of us. That, in my opinion, is the quickest path to a rich and full life, though it may or may not involve having a lot of money.

What we intend for our lives shapes the reality in which we live. By our good intentions, despite what we have all had drummed into us, we are not paving the road to hell so much as attempting to live faithfully into the daily life of Christian faith.

Amen