They say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I don't think that it's insignificant that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, not decorated or lined or signposted. If we are focusing only on our own good intentions, then we are looking only at our feet, where the pavement is, and paying no attention at all about where we are headed. Our intentions may be so good that the pavement practically shines and gleams golden, perfect, and pure. But what does it matter if we roll out the red carpet on the path before us if that road is taking us straight to Hell? After the temperature has risen forty or fifty degrees, what does it matter how nice and luxurious our pavement was? Intending to do good and actually doing good are not the same thing. When Christ invites us to follow Him, He wants us looking up at Him and not down at our feet. He wants us to follow His example and go about doing good, not drawing up plans and devising systems that will ignore all the poor and ignorant and undeserving that they will devour but will somehow still be better for the greater good in the long run. We cannot get to Heaven by looking only down at our feet and thinking only about how good our intentions are and paying no attention whatsoever to what may or may not be the consequences, good or bad, of pursuing our good intentions with our imperfect grasp of the full complexities of the situation in which we are embedded and with the less than capable abilities with which we attempt to realize our good intentions. If we keep our eye fixed on the glory of God, then He will reveal to us not only the course of action that will generate the most good, but also the manner in which we can bring about such good by joining together our faith and His power and grace. Let us stop looking down at the pavement where our good intentions lie and start looking up to our Savior. His path may not be paved with such shiny and plush good intentions, but however rough and rocky the path, it nevertheless gets us to where we want to go.
