As you read this message title today, this is the war cry which your body needs to hear today: Don’t just let life happen to you; live life intentionally. Don’t just let Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday happen to you; live the whole week intentionally.
Don’t just let dopamine happen to you; by that I mean don’t just let motivation, desire, and pleasure just happen to you. Choose what you need to motivate you intentionally. You will have to choose your pleasure intentionally, then choose your desire intentionally. I spoke to you in the past about accountability conversations; go over your week with your accountability partner and share how you intentionally spent every hour of your week.
Don’t just let chocolate happen to you, whatever that brings up your dopamine, any feel-good thing needs to have permission from your body. Be intentional about any celebration or a good time, do not be a spectator in your life. Don’t just let friends happen to you, friends are fellow passengers on the trip to your destiny. Save your accidental friends from you and save yourself from them, be intentional about traveling in the journey of life with friends.
Don’t just let poverty happen to you. Life can sometimes offer seasons of scarcity but, you must be intentional about returning to abundance. Don’t just let breathing happen to you instead be intentional about oxygenating your body whether through jogging or high-intensity exercises. Become a co-creator of your life and not a consumer of life.
Don’t just let food happen down your throat into your body. The little money or too much money you have is no excuse for you to eat any poisoned diet. Don’t just let sickness show up because of something you could have avoided going down your tummy. Wellness has to be an intentional lifestyle. Though some things are beyond our ability, God has made most to be within our responsibility.
Fitness will not just happen to you, good health will not just happen to you. There is no six-pack that will just grow in your body the next day. Longevity will not come accidentally to you. Do not wait for the sun to rise, be intentional about waking up and working out. Knowledge will not just grow in you, you will have to be intentional about which skill you want to develop in this season.
You can create a conscious change today in your life. You are a garden that will need seeds that are consciously planted in the correct seasons or else you will watch weeds grow all over your life. You don’t need weeds of unaccountable friends no matter how many years they have been around you. You don’t need weeds of destructive habits, no matter how good you feel about those habits.
Be intentional about becoming better than yesterday every day. Be intentional about getting an accountability partner and share some accountability conversations together. Be intentional about making friends who will let you be while you also let them be.
I guess the prayer of a certain American Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr famously called the Serenity Prayer is understood by many religions. The prayer reads: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Having mentioned all things above, there are times when it never rains but it pours. There are times of utter helplessness when life will drive you to go hibernate in your private bunker until the war is over. Even those seasons are there for a good purpose.
Whatever war you may encounter, it will be your choice whether you will wear the clothes of a civilian or you enlist as a soldier. We will have times when we die, but we must die with our boots on and the rifle in our hands. The next generation must celebrate the legacy of our footprints. Even in those moments when we are in the trenches of an incurable disease or a decision of those who have the power to cut our days short, we still have minutes of glory. Let every minute carry a message that will last for a hundred years to the next generations.
Even if we are left with an hour to live, we have words that we can say in one minute that can be quoted for a thousand years and inspire many people in years to come. Don’t just let life happen to you; live life intentionally every day.
