My phone rings…
“Bob?”
“Yes.”
“This is Jane…”
I barely know Jane….
She’s a high level executive at another company.
We’ve exchanged contact information.
But neither of us has ever called the other.
Why is she calling?
I’m confused when she asks…
“How can I help you, Bob?”
“Is it urgent?”
“You called me 4 times in the last hour.”
There was more than a hint of exasperation in her voice.
I look at my phone…
Actually, I called her 4 times in the last 15 minutes.
Embarrassing.
Unintentional pocket dials.
Unintentional living.
But wait… my story of unintentional living gets worse…
A few weeks later I look at my phone only to see a message from a big social media platform…
“Tell us,” it says “What is going on here….”
“Help us understand why you objected to this picture, and why you want it removed.”
What is it talking about?
I scroll down…
There it is…
An automatically generated message telling a good friend that her picture of a beautiful sunset is objectionable and that she should remove it immediately.
Pocket dialing turned to pocket messaging…
Embarrassing.
Unintentional living.
If only unintentional dialing were the worst part of my unintentional living …
Unintentional living is so easy…
We all live too often on auto-pilot…
Hearing the world’s message and surrendering to it without even realizing it.
How do we break the habit of unintentional living?
Of unintentional surrender to the world?
Perhaps it is through intentional surrender to God…
Intentional surrender of our moment-to-moment life…
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2
Intentional surrender to the God who made us for a purpose and with an intention…
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13
Note: An earlier version of this post first appeared in October 2015
