A Word about Vision

 

Today I want to share a word about vision, as I comment on Acts 16:9-15. This passage reads:

During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." And she prevailed upon us.

Today as I share a word about vision, I am reminded of a conversation I had with my father years ago when I was a child. 

Jack of All Trades:

My dad was working on our carport, building a room divider with a counter top to install between our kitchen and our living room. As I watched him work, I was impressed in my young mind about how many things my dad could do with his hands. As he often told me, he was a “jack of all trades and a master of none," yet despite that I can’t remember any of his projects that did not turn out well.

In any case, as I was watching him work and handing him a tool when he needed me to, I asked him about the plans for the room divider. I did not see him working from any drawings and I was curious about how the design of this piece of furniture had come about. My dad just smiled, pointed to his head and said, “The plans are in here.” Then he bent back to his work.

A Clear Vision:

That was not the first or last time my father had a vision for a project, and then proceeded to carry-out that vision. Time and time again, I saw my dad ponder a project, see a solution to a problem, and then make it happen.

Come to think about it, he taught me to do the same thing; although I am not nearly as skilled with my hands as he was. Yet, his physical skills were not the vital issue with my dad’s projects. No, the key issue was vision. He saw what the future looked like in terms of a garden, a tractor shed, a room divider, or a back porch, and then he set out to realize that vision.

This is the same thing we observe in our focal passage for today. Paul had a vision that the people of Macedonia, in Europe, needed help. Of course, the best help anyone can give or get is the Gospel message, and so Paul and Silas took the Gospel to a new continent, one which was previously unreached by the church. Paul saw the Gospel penetrating Europe, and led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, he realized that vision.

I would never say that the scale and impact of my father’s visions for his projects would match the vision of Paul, but the fact is, without a vision, neither man would have accomplished what they did, size and import notwithstanding. I have heard the importance of a vision described in this way, “If you don’t see it before you see it, you’ll never see it!”

Take Off the Blinders:

What about us, today? Do we have a vision for what our churches could be like? Do we have a vision about what our individual ministries could be like? What about our families or our schools or our work places or our nation? 

So often the saying that we “can’t see the forest for the trees” applies to our lives. We go about our day-to-day existence like mules with blinders on as they walk in a circle powering a syrup mill (yes, my dad was from the country, and yes, I do live in Alabama).

We just plod along, one foot after the other, trudging through life. It doesn’t have to be that way, however.

Conclusion:

Let’s seek out God’s vision for our lives, our families, and our churches. Next, let us pray and ponder and meditate until God shows us the way to realize that vision. Then, like Paul on the grand stage of history, and like my father on the carport of our home, let’s make it happen!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt