tool (noun)
One who lacks the mental capacity to know he is being used. A fool. A cretin. Characterized by low intelligence and/or self-steem. [Definition from UrbanDictionary.com — beware of explicit language if you're curious and want to check it out].
I'm taking back the word 'tool.' You're a tool. I'm a tool. And I think it's nothing short of fantastic.
Here's where I'm going with this. I like to think in metaphors. I look at my life as part of a bigger story, and I visualize that in pictures. I pray in pictures. I visualize success, failure, love, rescue, escape.
So this week we're studying prayer as a spiritual discipline, and for me prayer is an action in itself. But I find myself also praying for action to take place, invoking movement. For someone to be healed. For money to come in. For money to faithfully go out. For love to emerge. My prayer is an action, and I like to think that it causes more action.
Say I pray for God to visit someone. To make Himself known to a person who is desperately seeking Him. I pray, "chip away at his heart, O God." With what? What will God use to chip away at the stony barriers around his heart?
A tool.
That's what I want to become. I want to be actively used by God and that is my prayer. That He will invoke action and use me however He sees fit. And he's done big things with me the past couple weeks.
I'm a tool. And I'm loving it.