One writer notes that at West Point they teach students that all successful military campaigns depend upon “command intent” — the goal toward which an army’s efforts are finally directed, the one thing they are fighting to achieve.
Battle plans are fine, they observe, but after the first shot is fired, such plans are either greatly modified or abandoned.
The same is true of our spiritual lives. We may make any number of plans, but if we are not guided by a command intent, it is almost impossible to stay centered.
Far too often our spiritual well being is deeply tied to what we have planned. So, when illness, unemployment, loss, or simply a different sequence of events intervenes, many of us are “undone” by the vagaries of life.
That’s when it is important to live by a command intent: I will seek intimacy with Jesus and walk with him, come what may.