don't let not knowing how stop you from doing what you're called to do

WHAT and HOW. Those often become two words competing against each other instead of words that work together. And it's been my experience - HOW might be the mightiest 3-letter-word dream killer known to man.

How many mornings have you woken up with something on your heart? A new dream. A vision. Something that brings unexpected fire to your life. You wake up with this idea stirring in you. If you pull this off it will make a difference in the world. A difference that will bring goodness to your life and the lives of people around you.

I've had many of those mornings. Oh, this is going to be a great day. I finally have a vision....

And I start thinking about it. I actually can't STOP thinking about it. Oh, this WHAT I'm feeling called to do brings some energy with it. I'm alive!

Then I start thinking about HOW I'm going to pull it off. Suddenly I'm faced with I have NO idea how I'm going to pull this off. I lack too many skills. I don't have the time or the money or the connections to people who can help make my WHAT a reality.

I know WHAT I want to do in this world, but I suddenly have no idea HOW I'm going to pull it off.

And too often, by the end of the day, by the end of the process that takes me from dreaming of 'what' to trying to figure out 'how', the energy from the birth of a new idea becomes the mourning of the death of another impact on the world that will never happen.

Oh how many times I've given God credit enough for being able to put a dream on my heart only to turn around and discredit his capacity to pull it off.

One thing I'm trying to do about this - I've tried to stop interpreting these things God puts on my heart as suggestions. I've tried to stop hearing God say, "hey Keith, I have a cool idea you might be interested in" and I've tried to start hearing God say, "hey Keith, I have an idea and if WE don't pull this off we're going to miss a chance to impact the world."

Andy Stanley says this about a vision God puts on our hearts:

"In light of a divine vision, our daily faithfulness takes on new significance. It is no longer faithfulness for faithfulness' sake. There is something at stake. If the visionary doesn't act, something significant won't get done."

Something significant won't get done.

I think it's easy to dismiss a dream when we believe God is just bouncing ideas off us. What if we start interpreting dreams as a sense of urgency from God - as God putting dreams on our heart because he knows we are the only one who will make sure something significant gets done - something God NEEDS done.

What if God is putting dreams on our hearts because he knows we'll keep chasing WHAT he needs done long enough for him to show us HOW he intends to make it happen?

If you have a dream today, lean into WHAT. Lean into what you know. And what you know is this: God isn't going to light your life on fire with a 'what' only to watch that fire die because you don't know how.

God loves it when we don't know how. He loves it because he knows how much more we're going to love him when he ultimately shows us the how. Because make no mistake - you might not know HOW, but God does.