Good Intentions

I talk and live for process and motives.  Through experience, good and bad, I have found it is the only way to look at reaching a goal.  I rarely focus exclusively on a goal.  I believe the following; if one takes the right path, follows the right steps, and has the right heart, good destinations will happen.
 
The idea behind this belief is well founded.  While is directly contrasts with the end justified by the means, there is ample evidence that it is an effective way of approach a destination.  The question of problem lies with the goal.  Bad goals equal bad results, no matter how well intentioned one is.  Ugly destinations do not get better by how we get there.  Objectives do matter.  Evil, by any description, is still a very bad place no matter how great the ride was to get there.
 
The story goes that “the woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood.  He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel.”  (Isaiah 44.13)  The result is extraordinarily beautiful!  The skills that gave birth to something so wonderful from the raw, unformed, undiscovered piece of wood are legendary.  It is impossible to question the motives, intent, and heart of the artist.  Yet the image is simply that, an image.  There is no power within.  There is no ability to heal, nurture, or restore.  There is nothing that inherently on its own, change anything or anyone around it.
 
At times, I wonder where I am going.  Today is a great day to true my course.  Two ingredients are required in your life and mine.  First is heart.  We need to have the right intentions, discipline, and will.  Second is a destination.  Today I choose compassion over justice, mercy over revenge, and community over self. 
 
Life is full of individuals with good intentions.  You and I can make a difference.  It begins with our destination.  The combination is a partnership worthy of God.