This is an interesting question, because so many people live their lives everyday without thinking about vision and they appear to do just fine. You can stay busy 24 hours a day, study The Word, attend church, manage your family, career and life’s obligations for the next 50 years and not move God’s vision for your life forward. This is just existing and surviving and not tapping into the goodness God has reserved for you. It is like walking around as an unfulfilled, empty person that goes through the motions without ever touching the glory God created you to experience on a daily basis. Living your vision brings a deep passion and joy that is yours for the taking when you focus your time and energy on vision.
Vision is not just a big deal, it is the deal. God’s vision for your life is the one thing you were put here to do and it is your sole purpose for living. Vision is the ultimate picture of what God has shown you to be possible for your life. Not taking the time to know and act upon the big picture of what you are capable of being and doing in your lifetime leads to an unfulfilled life in which you just exist.
When you just exist, you bound around life like the colorful ball in a pinball machine, just waiting for the next obstacle to rebound off that sends you in another random direction. Think about all of the time you may spend in The Word, attending church, doing good deeds, working to get sin underfoot and fellowshipping, but still not functioning within the fullness of your purpose. When you pull back the layers, it’s all about you finding your vision and living it.
I really came to understand the depth of the importance of vision a little more than 6 years ago when I looked up and felt like my life was wrapping a death grip around my neck and choking any semblance of happiness out of me. My life was suffocating me. I was a single mother of a very demanding little girl, struggling to make it to the next paycheck, incredibly unhappy and feeling unappreciated at my job. What made it even worse is that one of my greatest spiritual gifts is my ability to feel what others feel and my office was located outside of the Psych ward and near the Cancer ward at the Seattle hospital in which I worked. This meant that everyday I constantly absorbed and felt the confusion, terror, panic, fear, disillusionment and dis-ease of people coming and going to and from the hospital.
This was slowing killing me and it seemed that no matter how much money I made, it was not nearly enough. I was living without the covering of God (I was not consistently tithing) and there always seemed to be a financial crisis to keep at bay. I realized that not living God’s purpose for my life felt like experiencing a slow, spiritual death. The scariest thing is that no one around me knew the depth of my pain. As an event coordinator, I became masterful at staying calm and collected in the midst of a crisis. I realized that it was not only a big deal to live God’s vision for my life, it was life or death for me and my daughter.
Vision is also a tremendous deal because as you take a good look at the world, it’s conflicts, clashing cultures, war, poverty, sin and suffering, it seems to be falling apart. God has deposited answers within you that will alleviate a portion of the world’s troubles. Deep, huh? Your vision is such a big deal because it is imperative that you bring forth the piece that you have been called to do.
Perhaps you are passionate about ending hunger and your talents are organization and graphic design and your gift is helping others do and look their best. Then it is time for you to find an organization that supports hunger causes around your city, state, nation or world in which you can contribute your gifts and talents. If you commit to living God’s vision, He will open up doors and His divine timing in a way that simply cannot happen without His favor.
Although your life may appear to be just fine, God has more for you. Even if you always look welldressed, have a great job and drive the latest edition of a luxury car, God has something for you when you commit to living His purpose which is exponentially better than anything you can even imagine.
God has shown me that all of the world’s problems can be solved when His saints heed His call on their lives. Can you imagine? I can.