Having Vision Makes the Mission
The concept of vision is required of us as believers in Christ. A true witness has to be credible, and if you’re willing to testify to the Father’s goodness in your life, you must live up to that testimony by having a vision.
We live in a world that is at odds with our values, beliefs, and desires.
We live in a world where they do things backward, not the way God intended for things to be done.
Look at the dating world. Try before you buy mentality prevails, instead of taking things slow and having an end goal of marriage from the outset. Building a friendship and nurturing that from seed to blossom. If more people make their intentions clear from the get go, the world will be a far better place to live.
Therefore, having a vision is so important. We don’t get to try before we buy with goals.
The goals are somewhere far in the distance, and it’s up to us to make the journey count. The vision gets us to the realization of the goals we set for ourselves.
Luke 14:28 “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first, having sat down, count the cost, whether he has enough for its completion?”
In this passage, our Savior, Jesus, is saying we need to plan things out before we get ahead of ourselves. Lest we build and not have enough to finish, leaving a stub of a building instead of a beautiful tower.
So using a vision board, or a notebook, or even a picture on the fridge of where you need to get is of the utmost importance.
Let’s say you have the goal of traveling the world and being a nomad with a one-person business.
You might put up a picture of the Greek islands, or a beach in Barcelona to spur you on to achieving that goal.
Small steps first.
For me, a vision board is an important thing to have. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, such as a dry-erase marker wall of text with a few sticky notes:
“I will pray earnestly for the things I’m grateful for, and for the gift of life.”
“Jesus wants me to serve others, so I will help people.”
If I could become the servant of all, no lower place to fall. (mewithoutYou lyrics)
“I will write 8,000-10,000 words a night until I have mastered my craft, improving my gifts through my faith in Christ.”
“If I don’t hit my goal for the night, I will not beat myself up. I will try again tomorrow.”
It can even be something with pictures and plans.
A mission statement of some kind.
Jesus isn’t averse to having visions, neither were most biblical figures.
Most of the patriarchs of our faith had visions of the future, sometimes supernatural, other times a desire for the things to come. A “one day we will leave Egypt and enter the land sworn to us by our God.”
The prophets always had a vision for the future. They often spoke of coming judgments, but also spoke gorgeous poetry about the world to come.
We need to come to these visions we have with faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Here, in Hebrews, God shows us we must have the faith to believe God and His promises from the Scriptures. You must believe God exists if He’s going to assist you with your vision.
I don’t think God exists. I know He does. But it takes faith, or the Hebrew emunah, to trust in God enough to know He will come through for me. Hebrew faith is more like trust in God’s faithfulness, instead of intellectual assertion alone.
So vision and faith tie together.
It takes faith to believe in your vision.
For me, I aspire to be the next successful author, to inspire others with stories of overcoming adversity. If I’m not good enough at the moment, that will not stop me from getting there. I have confidence in my work, and will defend my art. But every book I write will be better than the last.
We wrestle with the notion of “Can I really do this again?” “What if it doesn’t work this time?”
But with faith in God, we trust that we can do it again, and He will empower us to continue doing it for the rest of our lives.
Vision is required to make our missions come alive.
