Why You Need a Bias toward Action

It’s counter-intuitive, but action wins over clarity every time. Waiting to act until we have clarity will keep us paralyzed, never realizing our calling. It’s just socially acceptable procrastination.

Mother Teresa

A reporter visited Mother Teresa to do a story. When getting ready to leave, he asked her to pray for him for clarity. He had some big decisions he had to make back home that he was stressed about. She told him no.

He was shocked. “What do you mean you won’t pray for me? You’re Mother Teresa!”

She answered him, “I can’t pray for you for clarity because I’ve never had it. But I will pray for you for faith.”

Who Are We Trusting?

Waiting for clarity before we step out is really a form of self-idolatry. “I’ll be safe if I figure this out first. My clarity is my security, and then who needs God? I got this.”

I had a pastor who always used to say, “You spell faith R-I-S-K.” It’s a scary thing to trust God instead of ourselves. Faith is risky. But faith is where our calling lies.

Ships Weren’t Made for Docks

Waiting for clarity keeps your ship chained to the dock. It’s a lot safer than sailing out in that big, scary ocean, where many ships have sunk. But it’s not what the ship was made for.

Staying safe isn’t what you were made for, either. You were made for adventure. What’s the passion of your heart? God put that there.

“It’s a scary thing to step outside your front door.” – Bilbo Baggins

The Best Way to Get Clarity

The best way to get clarity is to act. Try something. What’s the next right thing? If you were actually going to pursue that passion in your heart, what’s the first baby step you’d take? Do that.

“Clarity comes with action.” – Jeff Goins

A former mentor, Jeff Goins, used to always say, “Clarity comes with action.” After you try something, you have much greater clarity about it. You’ve learned something. It worked or it didn’t. Most likely, it partially worked, and you’ve learned how to make it better.

Talk About Fear

A bunch of Christians running around fulfilling the passion God put in their hearts is Hell’s nightmare scenario. This is what keeps the enemy up at night. Because if we actually live out who God created us to be, the Kingdom of Darkness falls all across the world like a house of cards.

Yet all the enemy can do to prevent us from fulfilling our destiny, reaching our potential, and living our calling is pass his fear along to us. If he can anchor us to the dock of false safety with fear disguised as needing clarity before acting, he wins.

The people our message will touch are loved by God. But until we start doing things to move toward our calling, those precious lives remain firmly under enemy control. How sad.

On that Day we meet him face-to-face, what if Jesus shows us all the resources of Heaven that were positioned to help us live out our heart’s passion? Like dominoes, they were ready to fall into place to enable our calling. But it never happened because we never pushed over that first domino. How tragic would that be! I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have that conversation.

How to Use Your Brain

No one is saying be stupid. Use the brain God gave you. But use your brain to figure out the wisest path toward the passion God put in your heart. Don’t let your brain talk you out of it. So often “waiting for clarity” is just an excuse to live in fear.

Your brain is your GPS. It navigates the route. It never selects, or denies, your destination.

Say you get in your car and enter a destination into your GPS. “You really don’t want to go there,” said no one’s GPS ever. No. You, the driver, pick the destination, and, given that destination, your GPS plans the best route. That’s how it works. Your GPS is not allowed to have an opinion about your selected destination. Neither does your brain.

Your heart, led by the Holy Spirit, is the driver. Your passion is the destination. Your brain doesn’t have the right to talk you out of it. Your brain’s job is to say, “Ok, given that’s your passion, here’s the route. Here’s the best way to realize that in your life.”

Then take that first baby step. Clarity comes with action.

Your Turn

What’s the passion in your heart? Are you “waiting for clarity”? What is the first baby step you can take? Tell us in the comments. And please share if this would bless someone else.