Vision: What Do You See?

Purpose is important. Process is crucial. But what is it that keeps us pursuing our purpose according to the process we have defined? A vision of the future, a mental picture of what it looks like, is the inspiration for purpose and process. It is also what keeps us moving when things get tough.

Vision is a picture of what we believe can and must take place for our purpose to be fulfilled.

Walt Disney had a vision for his theme parks. It was that every customer would leave the park with just as big a smile on their face as when they entered it. That’s vision.

Horst Schulze had a vision for his Ritz-Carlton luxury hotels. It was summed up in their motto: “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” That’s vision.

Eugene Kranz, flight director of the ill-fated Apollo 13 space launch, had a vision for it. He saw the doomed Odyssey landing safely in the Pacific Ocean. That’s vision.

What’s our vision? What do we see?

It was 1922 and these two archeologists were excavating in an area where all others had given up on. Years later, they might have shared a laugh about the question. For on that fateful day in the Royal Valley, it was posed by his assistant to Dr. Howard Carter, whose head had entered the ancient tomb of King Tut, “Do you see anything?”

That’s the question God puts to us, “Do you see anything?”

What do we see? Can we see a different picture than the obvious one that is staring us right in the face? No tired, threadbare platitudes need apply for the lofty position of vision. We need a fresh picture, one that will marshal our cooperation and galvanize our resolve.

Ask God to touch your eyes, to lift up your head, give you a new vision, and paint a new picture of a preferred future in your mind’s eye. Without it, we probably won’t even start and we definitely won’t finish. Ask God for a new vision of what He wants done through you and through this church.