An old story tells of a missions society in South Africa that once wrote a letter to David Livingstone, deep in the African interior. They wanted to send him help. So they asked a fair question.

“Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you.”

Livingstone's answer has outlived every man who sat on that committee.

“If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

I have carried that line for years. It has a way of finding me right when I am tempted to wait for certainty before I move.

Most of Us Are Waiting for a Road

Somewhere along the way, we got the idea that God only sends us where the way is already clear. Funding secured. Plan approved. Every question answered in advance.

But that is not how He has ever worked.

He told Abraham to go before He told him where. He told Moses to speak before He gave him the words. He sent the disciples out two by two with no bag, no bread, no money, and no backup plan.

The road was never the qualification. The willingness was.

Vision Comes Before the Path

This is where goals enter the picture, and I want to be careful here, because goals can become one more performance treadmill if we aren't watching. That is never the intent.

Habakkuk was told to write the vision down and make it plain, because a vision you can actually see is a vision you can actually run toward.

Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Habakkuk 2:2

A goal, rightly understood, is not a hoop to jump through to earn God's approval. You already have that. A goal is simply the shape your obedience takes once God has shown you where He is leading.

Without that shape, most of us drift. We feel the tug to do something for the Kingdom, but the feeling never becomes a direction. Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). Not because God withdraws, but because we wander without a picture of where we are headed.

Down Days Are Not Failures

Every person I have ever mentored, every missionary I have ever sent, and every pastor I have ever coached has had down days. Days when the fire feels low, and the calling feels far away.

A clear goal will not eliminate those days. Nothing does this side of heaven. But a goal you can see gives you somewhere to stand when the feelings will not cooperate. It stretches the good days a little longer and shortens the bad ones just enough to get you through.

None of that is about trying harder to please God. He is already pleased with you in Christ. It is simply this: a person who knows where he is going tends to keep walking, even on the days his heart is not fully in it.

Even Your Sleep Can Work for You

Here is something worth remembering. God does not need your conscious effort every waking hour to move you forward.

For so he giveth his beloved sleep. Psalm 127:2

I have watched the Lord work things out in my heart while I slept that I could never untangle while awake. Once you know clearly what you are asking God for, you can rest and let Him work on it, instead of gripping it so tightly that you cannot let go long enough to sleep.

That is grace applied to ambition. You are not carrying the whole load. You never were.

One Step Builds the Next

No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62

That verse used to sound harsh to me, like a threat. I no longer read it that way. I read it as an observation about how momentum actually works. Every step you take toward what God has shown you makes the next step a little more natural. Confidence does not arrive before the first step. It arrives because of it.

You do not need the whole road mapped out. Livingstone did not have one either. You need the next faithful step, taken because you already belong to the One who called you, not because you are trying to earn a place at His table.

You Are Wanted

That old story is not really about roads in Africa. It is about the kind of heart God has always been looking for. Not the flawless heart. Not the fearless heart. The willing one.

He is not looking for men and women who need a guarantee before they will move. He already loves you fully, whether you take the step or not. But if you are willing, He still has places with no road built yet, and He is still calling people who will go anyway.

If this stirred something in you, I would love to have you along for more. I write these reflections for pastors, missionaries, and church planters who are walking this same road, or blazing one where there isn't one yet. You can find more at Ministry by Mercy, and I would be glad to have you along for what comes next.

#AudienceOfOne