Tag Archives: Deuteronomy 34:7

day 2395: Being Intentional

“Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyesight was clear, and he was as strong as ever.”

Patti and I recently went on a sailing vacation.  It was great and at the end, it was as relaxing of an away time that I can remember.  I was trying to put my finger on why and I decided it was because I was very intentional about this time.  You see, Patti easily gets motion-sickness and the thought of her EVER being able to be on a boat, of any kind, for an extended amount of time seemed pretty farfetched.  But, she was up for it and we gave it a try.  After the first day she was great but it was me who found himself having to be more intentional about the whole thing.  A few nights in I was starting to dread the evenings as I would put myself to sleep thinking hard about not paying attention to the rocking and swaying motion of the boat. I noticed that before I would start to feel queasy I would get a headache and after a couple of days I figured out that the headache was from me concentrating so hard about not feeling the motions.  It was an interesting lesson in mindfulness and what the mind can do.  But, I digress.  The flip side of all of the concentration and being intentional was that the focus yielded amazing times of peacefulness and rest.  Why is this useful?  Well, when we become intentional about anything, we can release the freedom of creativity and flow that I don’t think we experience otherwise. The best professional golfers will tell you that when they succeed it is because they focus on every shot, one shot at a time and block out all else and at the end of a round or tournament, they can then see the results.  What if we were able to find more space and time in our work (and organizations) for intentional focus?  What might flow from there?

Moses died when he was 120, but if I read the Bible right, he didn’t die from old age.  He died because God told him it was time for Him to pass the leadership to Joshua and to address the people with his last teachings (and song). It is hard to find anyone in the Bible who was more intentional than Moses.  His life was about daily keeping focus on the following of the Lord and collectively leading a people who were prone to stray.  But, when it was time, God told him and then left him and us with the blessing of there never being anyone like him again.  Would any of us, given the same opportunity step up to be as intentional as Moses?  Nope, but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want to release amazing things through us, if we can just be intentional today about Him!

Reference: Deuteronomy 34:7 (New Living Translation)