“I would rather play cards with someone who doesn’t cheat at cards than with someone who has good intentions about not cheating at cards.”

Decades before quotes were so “in” as wall décor, I saw this quote in a tiny frame in a friend’s bathroom…and it changed my life. (I think it’s a quote or paraphrase from C.S. Lewis.)

So often our good intentions keep us from the real deal. I carry them over from last week’s to-do list to this week’s list ad nauseum. “I’ll get to those later!” Maybe. They’re low priority…or maybe they’re about fear. Ick. I’m not a fan of my own fear. Can’t I delay the call to that friend who seems mad at me? Or maybe we don’t intrinsically want to tackle them. Can’t I start changing that bad habit tomorrow? I really want to! Really!

Really?

Well, after all that build-up, this isn’t a how-to on dealing with procrastination. We know what to do. It’s just a matter of getting on with it. What I DO want to address is our good intentions about impacting our world. Making our mark. Picking an issue. Brad Pitt said, “Let us be the ones who say we do not accept that a child dies every three seconds simply because he does not have the drugs you and I have. Let us be the ones to say we are not satisfied that your place of birth determines your right to life. Let us be outraged, let us be loud, let us be bold.”

If you could change one thing in your world, what would it be? We need to define what that thing is before we can tackle it. Then we need to do it rather than intending to do it.

I’ve intended to do my part in helping a segment of my city of 50,000 people since last August. It finally came to pass last week. Others came alongside to help move that intention to action. It’s small, at least for now, but my small action plus your actions add up.

Now about my intention to clean out the basement…