And now a trip back through time to a Throwback Thursday message from years ago from my pal The Grasshopper:

“Ask God For Directions, Not A Completed Mission.”

Whomever you ask things of – a deity, your intellect or your creative self – ask for the tools rather than the shed. They will prove more useful for the trip ahead.

We’ve all read stories of musicians, actors, sports figures and lottery winners blowing through fortunes spent on the times of their lives rather than lasting them a lifetime. They lacked the basic tools for managing their wealth. They got the moon before they knew how to build a rocket ship.

It seems that we keep asking for what we want with a bow attached, not realizing that we have the gifts (tools) to wrap our own presents.

Internal resources are our most precious and natural gifts.
I proffer that our culture has conditioned us to be lazy – to look outside ourselves for the Holy Grail. “It’s somewhere out there” is the external message we keep hearing and it keeps us looking for completed projects rather than working a plan.

You may get the spark for an idea that would have a huge impact on your life and then spend your quiet time praying for that completed mission. Your times of contemplation would be better spent asking for the tools for completion.

Ask your internal resources for the tools and a plan.

The answer to your prayer may look more like a blueprint than it does blue sky. Then it’s necessary to assemble the proper tools. The most important thing is to use them. I feel as though I’m channeling my late, sainted mother in this next sentence: “Your great idea will never come to pass until you decide to get off your ass.”

A great idea will remain an idea until you execute a plan.

Potter’s Field is filled with people who prayed for things with no strings. Their lives became a waiting game.

What are you waiting for?

The next time you pray ask for the tools to mold clay.

All the best,

John