I Can Do with Benjamin Lee: Turn Good Intentions into Faithful Decisions
A good intention needs a responsible decision. Learn what to start, stop, or continue, and give the next faithful action a place in real life.
#312 — I Can Do with Benjamin Lee
Mar 4, 2024
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Give the intention a decision
We can describe the life we want while struggling to name what we'll do differently this week. The missing part isn't always desire. Sometimes a familiar arrangement needs reconsidering, or the calendar needs room before another good intention can become an actual responsibility. Sometimes it is fear of beginning, reluctance to reconsider a familiar arrangement, or a calendar so full that a new priority has no practical place.
Benjamin Lee's I Can Do conversation brings experience in work, preaching, and family life to that question. Possibility is encouraging when it leads toward a thoughtful decision. Desire doesn't guarantee an outcome, and our plans still need to answer to Christ and the people affected. A Christian's plans remain subject to God's authority, real circumstances, and responsibilities toward others. The useful challenge is to act thoughtfully upon a worthwhile intention rather than leave it permanently in the realm of an encouraging idea.
Ask start, stop, and continue
Ben learned to ask what to start, stop, and continue in earlier sales work. The questions are simple enough to use on a familiar week. They can uncover something missing, something no longer useful, and something worth preserving instead of changing merely for change's sake. The questions can help reveal habits that persist only because nobody has reviewed them recently.
Keep the duty separate from the method you're reviewing. The responsibility to teach truth doesn't disappear when a study schedule becomes impractical. You may need a better arrangement for carrying it out, with Scripture continuing to direct the purpose. An arrangement used to serve that obligation may be reconsidered. Distinguish the responsibility from the method before evaluating results. This prevents a practical planning tool from becoming a substitute for scriptural authority or a reason to continue an unwise method indefinitely.
Try a permissible idea thoughtfully
A reasonable idea can be dismissed before anyone gives it a fair look. Study with neighbors or a different preparation routine may deserve a modest trial. First ask whether it's permissible and responsible; enthusiasm by itself can't establish that. Begin by examining whether the proposal is right, responsible, and suited to the circumstances. Enthusiasm alone is insufficient.
Define the trial clearly enough to review it. Who will carry the work, and what will it require? Ask the people affected and listen to counsel that identifies a difficulty you've missed. A useful plan includes room to learn, rather than requiring everybody to defend it immediately. Proverbs 15:22 values counsel, which can uncover a difficulty you have overlooked. Consultation should include the people carrying the work rather than only those most excited about the plan. A thoughtful beginning makes honest evaluation easier because everyone understands what was intended and what has actually happened. Agree on a review time before beginning. This gives a permitted trial a clear boundary and makes reconsideration part of the plan rather than an unexpected disappointment.
Revise without abandoning duty
Changing a method doesn't always mean the original choice was foolish. Experience may reveal something you couldn't see at the beginning. Continuing mainly to avoid embarrassment can use up energy that another responsibility needs, so honest review matters as much as determination. Ben's examples challenge the assumption that every discontinued activity proves a lack of commitment.
A revised plan still needs to honor people who've relied on your promise. Explain the change promptly and address what it means for them. Flexibility serves faithfulness when it helps us carry duties responsibly; it becomes avoidance when other people keep inheriting our unfinished work. James 4:13–17 reminds us to plan humbly under the Lord's will. Humility includes admitting a limit or a mistaken judgment; responsibility includes attending to the people affected when the plan must be revised.
Attend to the present need
Ben described serious heart-related circumstances that required reconsidering preaching commitments. We also discussed regrets about family needs and travel. These are personal evaluations, not a rule that every health concern or family difficulty requires an identical arrangement. I had a similar regret concerning a family crisis and travel.
First Timothy 5:8 gives household responsibility real seriousness. Public work shouldn't automatically outrank an urgent need close to home. Ask whether another person can carry a planned assignment while you attend to someone whose present care is especially yours to provide. Communicate clearly and seek help. You don't prove that a task matters by making yourself indispensable to it. Sometimes accepting another person's assistance protects both the shared work and the people who depend upon you.
Choose your own responsible goal
Ben's marathon goal mattered to him and needed sustained preparation. It doesn't make running a marathon the measure of another person's growth. An admirable achievement may still require time or resources that your actual responsibilities can't reasonably allow. The same distinction applies to career ambitions, travel, and other demanding projects.
Ask what the goal serves and who will share its cost. Luke 14:25–33 addresses counting the cost of following Jesus. Its illustrations remind us to think seriously, while keeping personal ambition beneath discipleship rather than pretending the two are automatically the same. Consider existing obligations, resources, health circumstances, and the effect on others. Choose an aim worth pursuing under Christ's authority rather than assume that a larger or more impressive version of someone else's goal must be better for you.
Prepare for ordinary effort
Motivation can help us begin, but it changes on an ordinary inconvenient day. A plan and suitable encouragement make room for commitment to continue. Ask what preparation is actually needed before relying on tomorrow's hoped-for enthusiasm to carry the task. These supports make intention more likely to become action.
Galatians 6:9 encourages perseverance in doing good within its spiritual setting. It doesn't guarantee success for every personal project. Let its call strengthen faithful effort while keeping your chosen method realistic and open to correction when experience shows a problem. Still, the responsibility to continue faithfully challenges dependence on mood alone. Decide the next appropriate action, arrange the time, and ask a trustworthy person for encouragement. Keep the plan realistic enough to sustain. If it repeatedly fails, examine the obstacle rather than only condemn yourself. A revised method can sometimes preserve the commitment more effectively than repeating a schedule that doesn't fit actual life.
Review more than numbers
Looking back can reveal progress an ever-moving ideal makes hard to see. Notice what you've learned and what your conduct shows, along with what remains unfinished. Numbers may offer information, but they can't decide whether a responsibility is faithful or a message true. Notice what you have learned, what has changed, and what still requires attention.
Nehemiah 2:11–18 and 6:1–4 show examination, cooperation, and attention to a defined task. Respect the account's setting while receiving its encouragement toward purposeful effort. Bring a start, stop, continue review to one responsibility, and let it lead to a decision you can act on. Let the account encourage purposeful action while keeping your own decisions accountable to Scripture. Choose one area for a start, stop, continue review, take a suitable next step, and revisit the result. Colossians 3:17 supplies the governing direction: words and deeds under the Lord Jesus. Possibility becomes useful when it leads toward responsible, faithful conduct rather than excitement that never receives a place in the day. Include qualitative questions in that review. Did a study help someone understand a passage more accurately? Did a revised schedule leave room for a neglected obligation? Did your communication keep the people involved informed? These observations may matter more than the number of occasions arranged. Also identify a practice worth preserving so that change doesn't become an end in itself. Purposeful living includes continuing what is good as well as beginning something new. The review should lead to a decision and a next action, not merely another appealing list.
Take the idea with you.
- 01What should I start, stop, or continue in one responsibility?
- 02Who needs to be heard before I change an arrangement they rely on?
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