"Where there is no vision....."(Proverbs 29:18)
"The ability to think about or plan the future with imagination and wisdom." (Dictionary)
What vision do I have? Not too much I am afraid. My vision is pretty short term, sometimes not even getting out of the day that I have in front of me. Too focused on what my life looks like from a very selfish attitude.
When I think about longer term, I tend to consider what impacts me. The picture is pretty small and I don't recognize the larger story and the part that I play in that. It takes vision to picture that, a vision that I seldom cultivate.
I think about our church and how, in 1996, a few folks in a living room were led to begin a new work, one that they felt God calling them to. Did they know exactly how it would look in 2011? No, but they felt God was in it and they were willing to step out in faith that it was God. They were not responsible for the results, only the following. They had a vision of a future with God leading, but could not know the result 15 years down the road.
I like the analogy of the Pilgrim and Puritan fathers. They were stepping out in faith, establishing a colony that could become a city on the hill, a light shining for the world to see. They could not see the end result, but were willing to be "stepping stones" that others might have the life that was envisioned for them by God. They were satisfied to be bit players in a larger drama. They had a future oriented vision.
Where is my vision? I am a bit player, and the story is not about me. If truth be known, I am a very, very small bit player. Can I see the vision of the larger story and where I actually fit in? Am I willing to be a "stepping stone", counting my life as little, so that the future generation can build something worthwhile?
Today there are actually two prayers; one to be a stepping stone and the other not to be a stumbling block. Oh to God that I would have the vision to be the former and not the latter.
"Where there is no vision....."
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