Good Intentions
“Hell is full of good intentions”...ever heard that saying? I have, and initially I didn’t grasp its meaning. It seemed like an oxymoron. How can anything good go to somewhere bad like hell? Then, as I grew older, it became evident of its true meaning.
As is the case with most things in life, good intentions start out good. A contract, a promise, a smile, a touch, a word, a cause, a plan, a project, and the list could go on. When a person has a good heart, it’s easy not to see the ill effects which can blossom from something good.
“No good deed goes unpunished." Clare Boothe Luce, an American Dramatist, coined the phrase to mean that a good deed is an intervening act, as opposed to looking the other way, thereby, causing the doer of good to wreak the consequences from persons affected by the act. Normally, the good deed doer expects just a “thank you,” but usually someone is adversely affected by the good deed. It shows the ironic consequences of the principle of "Do good unto others.” It was said by Clare Boothe Luce tongue-in-cheek, but is, in practical experience, true .
We have every intention of showing our moral and Christian good will in both cases, but it’s amazing how the tide will turn and suddenly that which was meant for good becomes bad.
There’s been countless times situations have been presented in my life which from all indications were relevant to the time at hand. And the good intentions, I surmised, somehow became ill gotten gains, for lack of a better description at the moment. Perhaps one will come later.
See, we are all human, we are all finite, and even with our most righteous attitudes, the Bible says in Isaiah 64:6, “…all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;” and our best intentions come up short many times.
As I pondered on this two word subject as I awoke this morning, I was trying to figure out how it correlated to my present day life. What relevance could I glean from the thoughts? A scenario came to my mind of which I had heard several years ago, as a reminder.
When there was a definite need, a Good Samaritan stepped up to the plate, and the good intention seemed to be a beneficial remedy. But soon what should’ve been a help became a wedge. And from that good intention ill will became a thorn, and even developed into animosity.
When I thought on this again, I asked myself how could that ‘good intention’ have stayed on track rather than creating a wedge.
Basically, the recipients of the good intention either were jealous, or resented the fact that they were considered a little less fortunate than the gift giver, not in actuality, but through the eyes of pride. I had a cousin one time who stated, “I may be poor but I’m proud”. Yes, pride is a conflict many times when it comes to good intentions.
Frequently a good intention is ethically motivated. The times I’ve experienced a good intention, whether I was the giver or the receiver, it started out with the right concept. But somehow a wrench gets thrown into the mix and then it becomes a totally different arena.
Do we premeditate good intentions? Most times, no. A good intention is a reaction to a revealed difficulty or traumatic life experience, or just a heartfelt action toward a needy person or thing. Good intentions are healthy as long as they are maintained within the boundaries from which they derive. Only when other factors negatively come into play does a good intention go sour.
Someone once said, “ I won’t allow myself to get sucked into the act of good intentions”, to which I sadly shook my head. Only God knows the depth of the need many times in people’s lives, and if we lose our empathy or sympathy to show forth good intentions, who’s to say where one’s welfare in this life or the eternal one yet to come may be lacking.
My desire is to be sensitive and to allow good intentions to motivate me to be there for a need which I may be the one chosen to fulfill.
There’s several scriptures which give emphasis to this subject, so God wants us to realize the significance of good intentions. They’re more than just words. “I intended to do that job or errand or whatever fits the subject matter, but never got around to it.”
Remember the ‘round tuit’ things?
I gave some for gifts back in the day.
May good intentions become a familiar part of life, if they aren’t already...more than words.
D. S. Mullis
.2019
I'm usually good for intentions and when I make them I make every effort to make them happen. But as the University land manager, I encouraged an old black man, Red, and his incompetent nephew to sell his caved-in old shack. We had hired a young realtor from the area to carry out transactions that allowed the sale of properties like Red's to enable him to buy a better property in another neighborhood. Probably because we offered so little money, Red held out until all the other houses around his were purchased and torn down. The realtor found him a better house in another neighborhood, but Red complained, "That's a bad neighborhood, don't want to move there!" But like all holdouts, he finally gave in and moved some distance away to a neighborhood where he had relatives, strangely called Sunnyside, but was really an urban slum like the one he left.
One of our project managers, Sam, and I took the time one day to go down to Sunnyside to see how Red was doing. He had bought a minuscule lot and had the framing of a one or two room place, but not even any sheetrock on the walls yet and he obviously didn't have any money or help. Sam declared right away, "We'll help you out." I agreed. When we got back to the University and asked our boss, the vice president, if we could use some of the physical plant staff and some of the materials we had to help Red out, he told us that we couldn't use materials, manpower or money from University to help out a private citizen. It was against the law. I recall him using University personnel to build an extension on his house.
We didn't talk about amongst ourselves, but neither Sam or I did anything after that. Reading your article about good intentions made me remember.
Ron