What is vision?
What is a visionary?
Why am I taking the time to ask these questions and blog about it?

Well, because I believe there’s something absolutely vital and life-giving to be found here if you’re willing to track with me.

I love watching or reading anything biographical, especially if the subjects of these biographies are people of vision and purpose that revolutionized something in our world. I may not always agree with their means to the end, or even with the end itself, but I am always inspired by the man or woman who can see outside the box and has the conviction to do something with their particular vision.
 

Take Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, Inc., for example.

This man was not content with the current level of computer technology available to consumers in the 70’s. However, he lacked the complete skill-set to make the kinds of advances that he could see in his mind. But the vision remained none-the-less. Couple that with an inner-conviction that consumers deserved better than status-quot and you get a man who literally revolutionized the world of technology in one life-time through partnering with others who were capable of executing what he envisioned. He was strongly disliked by many due to his critical perfectionism, demanding and aggressive personality, and his tendency to view people as a means to an end.
But the man was able to cast a vision and create enthusiasm for technological advances not yet seen, and to that end he is an inspiration for many.

Go back in time just a hundred years before Steve Jobs and you’ll find another visionary who would not relent in his cause.
Abraham Lincoln.

Nothing about Lincoln’s childhood would make you think “future president”. Yet, not only did he become our 16th president but he also brought forth what was thought to be an impossible feat in that generation: the abolishment of slavery in America. As with Steve Jobs, this man was a very polarizing leader. While Lincoln was widely praised and adored by the nation as a whole, those whose political power was being jeopardized by Lincoln’s conservative values and moral vision for America labeled him a war-hungry tyrant and hypocrite. Never-the-less, Lincoln persevered through more than just political opposition because his heart was compelled by a conviction that forced labor upon anyone, except as payment for crime, was wrong. And because of his unrelenting tenacity he transformed a nation in one presidential term.

Pablo Picasso transformed the face of art. How?

 He saw people not as images to be portrayed in their life-like, realistic appearance (as had been the mark of traditional art), but as living creatures filled with emotion and movement. So when he painted he sought to portray the emotion of the object over the appearance, and to do this he intentionally distorted bodily features, left out details, and over-simplified. Picasso was highly criticized in his own time, and did not have the privilege of seeing the icon he would become generations later amongst art-lovers. His completely “out of the box” vision ushered in the new world of modern art.

What kept Ludwig van Beethoven composing even though deafness plagued his life?
Vision.
What made Neil Armstrong think he could walk on the moon?
Vision.
What led Einstein to discover E = MC2 ?
Vision.

Obviously, I could go on and on… and hopefully your mind is now reeling with your own list of visionaries!
These men have each contributed to our world in a way that directly affects the way you and I do life today. They each had a vision that went beyond themselves, beyond their lifetimes, and beyond their capabilities.

I think it’s only natural to read brief snippets about the lives of these kinds of people and feel momentarily inspired… and then somewhere between that moment and whatever interruption brings you back to reality we make the mistake of filing those stories away under the heading:

Amazing People I’ll Never Be Like

It’s easy to do this because we can back it with all kinds of excuses.

I don’t have time.
I don’t have a degree in that.
I don’t have the finances it takes to do something like that.
I wouldn’t know where to start.
The problem is too big and I won’t be able to change it.
I’m not qualified.
I’ve screwed up too many times.
Nobody would support me in this.
They won’t believe me.

These excuses are getting old… no, honestly… they’re about 6,000 years old now.

Consider Moses who stood talking to a burning bush… yip, a burning bush with the voice of the Lord coming out of it... when He received his life’s mission to free the Israelites from Egypt.

We don’t have to speculate as to Moses’s response because Exodus 3 & 4 gives us a clear dialogue of excuses offered to the Lord that day.

Excuse #1: I’m not qualified.
But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? (Ex 3:11)

Excuse #2: I don’t have a degree in that.
But Moses protested, “If I
go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors
has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what
should I tell them?” (Ex. 3:13)

Excuse #3: They won’t believe me.
But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you’? (Ex. 4:4)
 

Excuse #4: I’ve screwed up too many times.
But Moses pleaded with the Lord,
“O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not
now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words
get tangled. (Ex. 4:10)

Excuse #5: The problem is too big and I won’t be able to change it.
But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else. (Ex. 4:13)

So what changed in the heart of Moses? Because, after all, we know that Moses was indeed the man God used to lead an estimated 600,000 Israelites out of their oppression in Egypt.
Vision happened.
Moses began to see who God was… His power, His compassion, His justice, and ultimately His glory.
For a man so full of timidity and excuses during his first encounter with Yahweh he sure became bold over time… so bold, in face, that he said to the Lord,
Show me your glory.
And the Lord replied,
I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. … But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. (Ex. 33:19,20)
Moses was forever changed because he saw the Lord.
He had a vision of Someone greater than himself that was worth living and dying for.
 

You see the same beautiful transformation in the prophet Isaiah, even though Isaiah didn’t get to see the Lord physically pass before him as Moses did. He saw the Lord in a vision, but watch what it does to his heart:It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two
wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and
with two they flew. They were calling out to each other,

 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have
filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen
the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He
touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your
lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” 

Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”

Do you see it?! Huh huh,.. do you?

Isaiah’s heart was changed by his vision of the Lord. Seeing the Lord’s holiness awakened Isaiah to his sinfulness and need to be cleansed and forgiven. Then, and only then, was his heart stirred to obedience when the Lord asked who would be a messenger to his people.

Oh man, I could just keep going here… from the Old to the New Testament you see this thread of God revealing himself to people and how it changes their heart which ultimately leads to a life of surrendered obedience to His purposes and His vision for their life.
 

Peter went from being a coward to a church planter when he finally saw Jesus for who he was.
 

Paul went from being a murderer to a preacher when the Lord blinded him and then removed the scales from his eyes.

So, going back to my original question, What is vision?

Vision is a compelling force that will both consciously and subconsciously motivate our decisions, choices, attitudes, desires, and perception.
 

If your vision is short-sighted and primarily stops at the mirror’s reflection then you’ll most likely spend a great deal of time, money and effort making yourself look good.
If your vision is of happy, peaceful days then you’ll naturally make choices that eliminate stress and seek those things which are pleasurable to you.
If your vision is formed by what others think about you then you’ll probably never risk looking foolish, you’ll hide your failures, you’ll learn the art of being a chameleon, and most likely never own a strong conviction or opinion.
If wealth and financial security are your vision you’ll justify long days of work even if it comes at the cost of relationships or your own physical health.

But an interesting observation about world-changers, revolutionaries, visionaries, and heroes is that they aren’t “in it for the money”, in fact they’re usually willing to go broke for the sake of their vision. They don’t care what they look like (and it usually shows). And they don’t care what people think of them or their ideas. They break the rules, they think outside of the box, they don’t color in the lines, and they don’t let rejection stand in their way. 

They are compelled by a passion, a vision, a hope, and a reward that somehow trumps their own self-consciousness.

We’re not all going to leave our mark on planet Earth in the same way as Albert Einstein, Abe Lincoln, Steve Jobs, or Picasso because their gifting and their calling was theirs and not ours.

But this I know is true.

 To know the One who created you is one massive step closer to receiving the vision God has for you, and whatever it is will compel you to live, create, parent, teach, compose, invent, explore, speak, sing, play, build, and work for purposes that transcend your lifetime.

When parenting goes beyond activities and homework to shepherding and pastoring.
When 9am – 5pm is more about people than products and paychecks.
When artistry goes beyond canvas, design, and style and becomes a window into God’s own glorious creativity.
When speaking, teaching, and singing is not about you being heard, but about God being heard.
When cleaning, recycling, building, maintaining, and protecting are done to honor and show thankfulness for what God has entrusted to us.

When marriage is no longer a means to satisfy your own desires.
When the mirror and the scale are no longer obsessions.
When houses, cars, toys, clothes, and purses serve their purpose and not our identity.
When life is no longer about YOU…

is when life truly begins.

  I can’t think of a better way to close out this blog post than to make this hymn a prayer: