The Evil in Good Intentions

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Your good intentions can be quite evil.  Too often, they motivate poor choices. Most people grasp that truth well, but they still use their good intentions to rationalize their poor choices. What I hear most often is the statement, “God knows my heart.” The rationalization is that God knows you’re trying to do something good, so he’ll overlook it even though you’re doing something he has declared wrong. There may be some comfort in that rationalization.  And there might even be a smidgen of truth somewhere in it given some limited, specific circumstances. But Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the heart is wicked and deceitful – which should give one pause regarding what God knows about one’s heart. It has been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  Some have said that hell itself is roofed, walled and furnished with them, too. Because we are woefully flawed, some paths seem right to us, but in the end they lead to death (Proverbs 14:12).

Paul, before he knew Jesus, was a fine example of this. He tormented Christians and pursued them ruthlessly, thinking he was doing a Godly thing (Acts 26:9-11). But his behavior was sin. Some of the worst evils are done with fully good intentions (John 16:2). 

Those are drastic examples, of course, but the truths they illustrate are not limited to extremes. If you are living outside of God’s will, and God’s way, regardless of your intentions, then you are in disobedience, and disobedience has consequences. 

I won’t burden you with a long list of what God thinks is wrong. If you truly belong to God’s family, then you probably already have an idea as to whether or not you’re doing something that displeases God. And you probably already have a good idea as to whether or not you’ve employed the “good intentions” excuse.  That’s the way his Holy Spirit works. The bible speaks to every domain of human life. If you study it, you will find that God speaks to you through his living word, and that he can help you to figure it out much better than I can with my 400 words or less. Couple that with a committed life in a loving Christian community, and the wisdom of your leaders, and you'll likely find the right path to follow.

Even more amazing, God's word can set you free from disobedience, flaws, and failures, and give you strength to win the battles that the world, Satan, and your own flesh will send your way. That way, instead of just having good intentions, you can do actual good. 

You Might Not Hear Until You Trust

Mike Hosey, An Elder

God has graced me with the opportunity to counsel a lot of people. In those instances, I do my best to bring to bear whatever wisdom he has given me to their problems. Unfortunately, they often carry barriers that keep them from hearing that wisdom. 

Literally. They can’t hear it. 

Often that barrier is a lack of trust.  If they don’t know me, then they don’t trust me. If they don’t trust me, anything I say is suspect, and goes in one ear and out the other. But if I’ve done my part to get to know them, and they’ve done their part to get to know me, then a faith in my sincerity develops, and they begin to trust the process. After some time, they learn to hear the wisdom. Once this kind of relationship emerges, all I have to do is prompt them to trust me when I notice they’re no longer hearing me.

I can remember a time when a woman I was counseling was in a full rage after having been offended by the words of a peer. Screaming, yelling, gnashing of teeth, and a fear of bodily harm and property damage oppressed the atmosphere. I tried my best to speak wisdom into her situation. But nothing was getting past her ears. Finally, during a brief pause in her rage, I was able simply ask, “do you trust me?” For some reason, she thought about that question. I reminded her of past moments in our relationship where my sincere concern for her well-being had been displayed.  She relented to faith. She could then listen to the wisdom that I (and others) had to offer, and we navigated the morass in which she found herself. 

Hearing God is very much like this.  If you want to hear him, then you’re going to have to trust him.  If you don’t, then instead of hearing God, you’re going to hear the voices in your own head. You’re also going to hear the voices of those things you do trust. Instead of hearing God, you’re going to hear what your comfort tells you.  You’re going to hear what your fear of losing something tells you. In fact, you can learn to trust in the certainty of your heartbreaks, your failures, and your flaws so strongly that they become deafening. 

But if you trust God, you can listen to him. He’ll tell you a different story. One of love, and victory, and perfect renewal, even as you are traversing troubled waters.

Hearing God in the Noise

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Background noise will dampen your ability to hear specific sounds. In fact, this is so true that I often use background noise to my benefit.  One way that I do that is by running a fan or an air conditioner while I sleep at night. Doing so drowns out noises from the other side of my window.  It deadens the racket from my children’s play (or their squabbles). It can even muffle the “sounds” of my own racing thoughts. In a way, background noise insulates me from the noise I don’t want to hear. But background noise isn’t always beneficial.  Frequently, static keeps you from hearing things that are actually good to hear. As I sit here typing out this piece in the dark of an early Thursday morning, I can hear birds outside my window. I can hear my dog, Duke, breathing. If I train my ears on the distance, it’s even possible for me to hear I-75 through the trees and fields east of my property. But a few moments ago, I couldn’t hear any of it.  My son’s alarm was going off.  It wasn’t loud at all.  It’s a quiet, rather muted alarm clock, and whatever harshness it has, was stifled by his closed door. It was almost like a background noise. It beeped on and on steadily.  My ears focused on it instead of the more soothing sounds around me. I couldn’t hear the birds, or the dog, or even my own thoughts.

Interestingly, your brain and your ears have a remarkable way of working together to filter out background noise. If I had told myself to listen for the birds, my brain would have pulled up various memories of bird sounds, and guided my ears to tune into those sounds. They would have ignored the breathing dog, the humming fan of my laptop, my son’s chirping clock, and they would honed into the chirping birds in the overgrown hinterlands of my backyard. Of course, knowing what birds sound like makes that whole discernment process much easier.

Hearing God’s voice often works the same way. You either have to filter out or remove all of the background noise before you can hear what he’s saying.  It’s a matter of priority.  God often doesn’t raise his voice over those things you’d rather hear. It’s also much easier to hear his voice if you know the kinds of things he says.  When you study your bible, you are studying the voice of God. 

Finally, you must belong to him. Last night, I sat in our church and could hear a group of people meeting in another room. With laser-like precision, I was able to identify various voices from a cacophony of human speech -- even though I could not see anyone at all. I was able to do that because I knew those people. In a sense, I belong to them, and they to me because of our relationship. God is no different.  His sheep hear his voice (John 10:27).