"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [wo]men to do nothing" (Edmund Burke).

OOD INTENTIONS. We all have them. Only we don't always act on them. How many times have we wanted to do, say, or be something but just sat back and let the opportunity pass?

To be fair, something usually happens to derail our plans, and we put off our good intentions until the next day. And the next. Soon our intentions are filed away in our subconscious mind, and perhaps we justify ourselves with "I really wanted to do it, but something else came up." After all, it's the thought that counts, isn't it?

Honestly, though, good thoughts are just that: good thoughts. They count only for something in your head. Perhaps they give you a warm fuzzy feeling (I'm a good person after all; I really wanted to do something), but at the end of the day you are no better than the person who didn't think it and didn't do it. In fact, you may be a little bit worse, for the good we can do but fail to do speaks not of our inability or even lack of opportunity, but rather our lack of initiative and commitment.

Ellen White says in her book Steps to Christ, pages 24, 25, that as our conscience is quickened by the Holy Spirit, we will see the evil of sin--its power, its guilt, and its woe--and will feel that sin has separated us from God. I believe those words also apply to good intentions, for sins of omission are just as bad as those of commission. And our good intentions (procrastination) can become sinful when we neglect to do what we know the Lord has asked us to do.

Proverbs 28:13 is encouragement for my heart, however: "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." God promises to atone for our past and present sins; all we need to do is to confess them, forsake them, and then obtain mercy.

You must be wondering where I get off telling you that good intentions are only good as actions follow them. Well, take it from one procrastinator to another . . .

Years ago friends gathered to bail me out of a big problem I had landed in. Then I got a few rubles and a lot of warm fuzzies, and decided that I would send thank-you notes to each of my friends. I went to a stationery shop to purchase some fancy-looking thank-you notes. Unfortunately, I still have them all lying in my drawer somewhere mocking me, tempting me to do the good I should have done years ago. That's as far as my warm fuzzy feelings went. Those notes never got sent.

There was just never enough time to jot down the names of everyone who helped. And with time I forgot some names, of course. And after more time elapsed, I became understandably embarrassed. How do you send a thank-you note years later?

If you are like me, you may have countless letters you have wanted to write--an old friend, a newspaper editor, your pastor or conference president--but have written them only in the ink of your mind. There may be someone you've meant to call or visit. You may have been meaning to lobby for some kind of change in your church, protest injustice, or even stand up for a bullied friend. Unfortunately, all you've done about it is "mean to do it."

There's something about life: it has the last laugh on us. It's true we don't have all the time in the world to do the good we want to do, but to postpone it until we find a more convenient time is surely to pass up an opportune moment. That's especially true of acts that may not require much planning or even money, but just a minute or two today. Yet it's also true that there is much good we can do every day without going far out of our way.

John Mason, author of An Enemy Called Average, writes, "Eliminate all excuses and reasons for not taking decisive and immediate action. . . . What is important is not whether a person is busy, but whether he is progressing; it is a question of activity versus accomplishment."

Winning the Battle
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:7, 8, ESV).

When it comes to good intentions, I am learning that it's important that I do not commit to things out of politeness or well-meaning impulsiveness that I have no intention of doing. That only adds to the problem. We should make only promises that we know we can keep.

Let not the things that mock us be those that we failed to do, passing them onto some seemingly better-placed tomorrow that never comes. And let us not allow evil to triumph by our good intentions.