How do you live when you don’t know what is to come?  Perhaps you sit amidst transition, or you hope for things that will inevitably change what is, or your seeming stability is rocked with unexpected news of a health change, or a job change, or really just any change that you didn’t see coming.  What then?  When what you thought you could rely heavily on or take incredible confidence in or hold your allegiance strongly to simply failed you.  Maybe even you left something behind on your own volition, but regardless, your days hold a few questions muddled with meanderings, a few daydreams saddled alongside certain realities, and far too much worry.  What then?

Perhaps I may make a suggestion.  Live the same way you would while in the assurance of stability, the confidence of contentment, and the generosity of plenty.  We tend to convince ourselves that if we knew all that was to come, or if we sat in the luxury of security – which at times life graciously permits – then we would be better equipped to live well, and even to love well.  Although let’s just be honest with ourselves:  if you’re not living intentionally now, you won’t when you have more of whatever you think you need, or when what has been taken from you is restored.  You won’t give people more of your time when time moves slowly. You won’t give away your money with plenty if you haven’t yet given it away with little. You won’t be less consumeristic with just a little more materialism. You won’t love when it’s hard if you think it’s better to love when made easy. You won’t even drink less coffee when you feel more awake. Intentional living is not accomplished when the circumstances are just right, because even in those moments that they feel aligned with the stars, they are one rotation away from an unforeseen change, and you leave your confidence sadly obliterated from the pressure to remain.  The art of intentional living is the discipline to do all you know you should regardless of your emotional attachment to your circumstances, because what is romanticized intentionality anyway but an unrealistic hope that the deepest things in life just might come naturally when the conditions are right. No. Rather it’s a fight against every piece of you that lives for both self-pity and self-pleasure. A fight to remember that you live for more than you.

Now to say that in life’s most devastating of circumstances seems a bit jarring.  I saw a social media post only moments ago where someone shared that their husband admitted to an affair, only to be accompanied with the grief that they are more in love with this side romance.  Another post spoke of the memory of a child born for only moments before leaving with her final breath.  Even for our family, we lost someone very dear to us only weeks ago and our hearts ache.  To simply continue on in life with a vigor that downplays a very real grief can further crush one’s spirit.  May those moments instead be where we allow ourselves the benefit of being poured into, and where we seek the steadfastness of relationships in which we can take deep confidence.  Yet even such crossroads of anguish are best brought to wholeness in time when used to bring solace to the equally defeated.  To even be intentional in our heartache.  The challenge is a great one, but with it we reap the beauty of relying less on ideal circumstances and press into the depth of generous contentment.

EXPOSITION: Are you in a state of circumstantial confidence or are you looking desperately ahead?  Now think to a time when you were in the opposite state of what you are now.  In both of those seasons, consider your intentionality in relationships, contentment, and generosity towards others.  Are you finding that your willingness to be intentional relied heavily on the right conditions?  Did that willingness actually procure more intentional living or did you simply convince yourself that the right circumstances would make it easier?

RISE: Separate yourself from your circumstances.  How can you be content no matter the conditions?  In what ways will you be generous regardless of your financial provision?  How might you press into others as a comfort to them; how might your story speak into theirs?

DENOUEMENT: “Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.” (a letter from Paul to the Philippian people, thanking them for their financial gifts when he was in need)