“The road to hell is paved with good intentions!”

I will never forget the day that my father said this to me. He had called me, long distance, after an extended period of me not calling him. When I realized who it was, I quickly said, “Dad…I was going to call you!”, to which he promptly replied with, “Son, the road to hell is paved with good intentions!” I don’t remember a whole lot about the rest of the conversation.

One of my favorite people of all time said, “The good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice…O wretched man that I am!” This is precisely how I have felt much of my life. My mind and my heart race with the things I want to accomplish…and yet I find that it rarely gets past my mind and my heart. Posting to my ‘Defining Moments’ blog is just one of those many things I want to do, I feel I should do, but simply fail to do it. O wretched man that I am!

In my first post on July 25, 2008 (almost two years ago) I wrote a simple definition of a ‘defining moment’, “By simple definition, a defining moment would be ‘moments in our lives that define who we are’.” My failure in posting to my blog is another one of those defining moments which say, ‘you are being defined by what you fail to do’. Ouch! Those are words which cut to my heart and yet at the same time, as I face them head on, cause me to search for a remedy.

My last post was almost one year ago to the day (March 8, 2009). So, what you are reading is my ‘annual’ post, three weeks early…just kidding. I concluded my first noble post, What is a ‘defining moment?, with these words. “And so I will write, and if people read...cool...but if not, I will at least have enjoyed the process of putting my thoughts about the defining moments in my life and the world around us into words.” Oh what noble and lofty words these were, perfectly setting the stage for yet another job unfinished and another ‘defining moment’ in my life. Call me crazy, but it is a little hard to get people to read something when you never write anything!

It was one of my heroes, the apostle Paul, who declared himself such a wretched man. However, at the same time, he declared who it was who could rescue him from his wretchedness. “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” I thank God that posting or not posting to my blog, cleaning or not cleaning my garage, or any number of things don’t change my standing with Christ. But, they do define me, they speak of who I am which isn’t always who I want to be.

“And so I will write…once again…and this time…if I don’t, I will pull my blog off the internet and put both myself and my two followers out of our misery!”