Episodes of Living: 3 LEVELS OF PURSUIT

Here is one iron fact of life: nothing comes easy. Ask the entrepreneur and he will tell you how many times he failed before he succeeded. Ask the bestselling author and he will tell you how many times he was rejected before he had a breakthrough. Motivational speaker Emmanuel Dei-Tumi likes to quote that you don’t get in life what you want but you get what you negotiate for. Jesus taught about 3 levels of pursuit in Matthew 7:7 saying, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Let’s explore the 3 levels of pursuit in details.

ASKING: It will be given to you. Asking is mainly done with the mouth. It is more important to ask than to have only intentions in mind. I believe for many people who don’t get, they suffer from thinking for others. Thinking for others is a mindset that either assumes the other person knows our need or cannot help. Most of us are victims for even our dreams. Many people don’t get what they want in life because they don’t ask what they want in life. As simple as it may be, people deprive the whole humanity of their potential because they don’t ask. You only get what you ask for.

SEEKING: You will find. The second level of pursuit is seeking. Amazingly, seeking involves your mind, soul and body. You can sit and ask, but it is impossible to sit and seek. It demands movement. A hungry bird cannot get food by sitting on a tree. It must fly and move and search. Until you move, nothing moves in your life. Consider this: If you seek, you will find. Then it means nothing is readily available.

KNOCKING: It will be opened to you. The highest level of life’s pursuit is knocking. Only a critical 20% of humans ever get here in their lifetime according to the Pareto Principle. Why? It involves knocking some walls of opposition down. Every great opposition is a door. And every door is either closed or opened. But it is said that “it shall be opened” supposing that it was closed. I have a prayer partner I call for meeting most of the time. I can imagine going to stand at his doorstep one day and deciding not to knock. What happens? The door won’t open by itself and I will stand there just wasting my precious time. Are you wasting your time not knocking?

Whichever level of pursuit of your dream you may find yourself, don’t fold your arms on it. It is not enough to believe and confess you will get it. Go and do more! Go seek and knock down some challenges your way to obtain a well-deserving title. American bestselling author Denis Waitley said, “As long as we are persistence in our pursuitof our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time.”