The Power of Asking: Why Your Requests Reveal Your True Intentions

"All desire is a form of transcendence" - Luke Burgis

Whatever your wants and needs are, they all stem from the basic human instinct of desire. According to the Oxford dictionary, desire is "a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen." Over the course of time for some strange reason, we've tended to associate desire with our negative inclinations as humans. Negative inclinations such as greed and lust.

In spite of that trend, having desires are important. Because it is a force that is present when we do not have something, it places emphasis on the importance to have good intentions to go along with the desire. One could say, that our intentions are what create the desire in the first place! For example, if our intention is to become wise, then we begin to desire what I call the building blocks of the intention. In this case, we would desire education, being around wise people, learning how to clear the noise that obstructs learning, seeking out wisdom literature, etc. Speaking of which, the Bible keeps it pretty simple when it comes to obtaining wisdom:

"The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown.” - Proverbs 4:7-9 (NIV)

Something magical happens with desire. You acknowledge the forces beyond you must act in your favor, hence why I quoted Luke Burgis in the beginning of this post. Desire is a form of humility if you think about it from the perspective of having to recognize your limitations and relinquish control to the forces that be, so you have to create an ask. But be careful (and I'm speaking to myself too), because your intentions are what create the desire in the first place, intended or unintended, so your ask will sound similar. The ask creates opportunity or rather, it allows you to sense it better and seize it in the form of action.

Even though the outcome we get is based on what we ultimately decide to DO, stemming from our desires, it doesn't make us permanent versions of that outcome. Let's use another example: If we desire to become patient, what happens is opportunities to be patient will arise. In this example, we have two choices in the face of that opportunity: To become patient, or to remain the same. What I'm saying is, if we decide to rush to work despite our desire to be patient, the action of rushing doesn't brand you as a forever impatient person. The beautiful thing is at any time, you can decide to be patient.

When enough opportunities of patience come and you successfully yield to the force that is trying to act on you, you then create the habit of being patient. Fret not though, if you fail, you can simply try again.