Sniffing Does't Work

I get lots of inspirations from God.  Don't you?
And, boy, do they look good.
All of them.
Start a Bible study.  Go on a retreat.  Take Aunt Mabel shopping.  Write a book.

They take me in all kinds of directions.--first one way, then another.
I work, and work, and sometimes very little gets done.
It feels like I'm sniffing my way around, looking for the right scent.
I feel frustrated, scattered, wasted.
Is anything getting accomplished?  Do my efforts produce anything of value?

Satan provides inspiration, too, and he doesn't worry about how many ideas or "inspirations" we have, or how many plans we make, as long as nothing gets done. 

God's way looks different.
Whether you turn to the right and to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way.  Walk in it.--Isaiah 30:21

God always tells us the way to go.  Are we listening?
How often do I forsake a smaller, obvious good in favor of a vague future that looks better but never comes to pass? 
God's vision doesn't ever look like ours.
It often looks smaller, less ambitious, than the ones we sniff at so ardently, but it is, in the end, straighter.

Each one went straight ahead.  Wherever the Spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went.--Ezekiel 1:12

A dog smells his way and, in the process, gets constantly distracted.
We are to watch and listen for God to go before us, then follow not our nose, but Him.