This past Saturday - we took my son to the eye doctor. Jordan had been wearing glasses since he was five years old. About 14 months ago, his eye doctor felt that his vision had improved to the point that glasses were no longer necessary. Well over the last few months we noticed that Jordan had started to suffer with a lot of headaches and he was complaining more and more about his eyes. So we scheduled an appointment. And as it turns out - he has one eye that's perfect and one eye that isn't and so he's now wearing glasses again. I suggested we just get a pirates eye patch or a Mr. Peanut monocle but he didn't find those suggestions to be very amusing. Well while we were in Lenscrafters picking out a pair of glasses, my daughter, Abigail, and I started goofing off. We started picking up glasses that I couldn't believe were for sale and putting them on. I mean some of these glasses had to have been donated back to the store when someone got an upgrade and then because of the economy, the store decided instead of giving them to a third world country that they would sell them as if they were a new style. They were bad. Well we were having a good time and so I put on one particularly pair of horrible glasses and we started taking pictures. . . which we uploaded to Facebook . . . which was followed by some of the most funny comments I've ever heard. Some of the folks who commented, I think they honestly believed that I had stepped out of a time warp and was actually going to wear these glasses. Based on some of the comments, I was thankful to have perfect vision, lest I be tempted to purchase the ones that were creating such a stir. So in case any of you were confused. . . NO - I don't wear glasses . . . and NO - if I did, they would not look like the ones in the picture :-). But having explained that, the experience did get me thinking. What must it be like for many who suffer with vision problems or even blindness? To live life in need of something to supply the ability to see, the ability so many of us take for granted. I wake up each day, I open my eyes, I look out of my bedroom window and I never stop to think how it is possible for these to holes in my head to be able to visualize all that is before me. Sight is an amazing sense. Of our five basic senses, it is the one that I would least like to be without. I can't imagine living life in darkness or seeing shadows or in a blur. And yet as bad as that seems, Helen Keller, a woman born blind and deaf, said "There is something worse than living life without sight, and that is to live life without vision." Proverbs 29:18 says that "Where there is no vision, the people perish. . ." It screams of the importance of having vision.
You see vision goes beyond our ability to see. Vision is what you can see that is beyond what your eyes can perceive. Vision looks over a blank canvas and sees the finished masterpiece. Vision looks at a vacant lot and already sees the dream home. Vision looks at a blank screen and can already see the best seller. Vision looks at one Bible Study and can already see an entire church worshipping and serving Jesus Christ. Vision gives legs to our dreams, provides hope in those moments of anxiety and fear, and gives meaning when life seems to have none. Vision drives us to keep going, even when all sanity says quit. Vision pushes us to explore, to pursue, to search, to wonder, and to do what others think is impossible. Vision fuels our passions and expands our faith. Vision will make us reach for more while others give up on the journey.
Last night, I went with several of the members of Church on the Move and we cleaned up some litter and debris from around our retention pond on our new church property. Once we were done, we walked through the building that is being constructed on our property. The building is starting to take shape. The metal studs are up, the rooms have been framed and you can begin to get an idea of what everything is going to look like. I watched as Pastor Mark and Chantel walked through the building and you could see in their eyes the vision of what we are trying to accomplish. I watched as you could see that Chantel can already see where the mirrors are going to hang in the bathroom and where the cabinets are going to go for the teachers to store their supplies. The dreams and plans of years gone by are coming to the surface and they are materializing before her very eyes. But without their vision - we never would have gotten to this stage of the process. Marshall Wainright, another of our Associate Pastors, and I walked upstairs and out on to a catwalk which will eventually house our lighting control and possibly our cameras. We stood there and looked out over our Sanctuary and while to our naked eye, we could just see concrete and steel - we begin to dream and began to see people standing in the presence of God worshipping and growing and becoming what God intended for them to be.
There's something powerful about vision. Vision helps us to see, even when we can't see. Vision brings color to a black and white world. Vision gives hope to the hopeless. Vision breathes breath into those things that are lifeless. God spoke to the prophet Ezekiel and showed him a valley filled with dry bones. It was more than likely a battlefield littered with the bodies of fallen soldiers, having died in combat and left to rot in the desert sun. Imagine being Ezekiel and seeing such a horrific sight and being asked if indeed these bones could live. Ezekiel responded simply, "O Lord God, you know." God then told Ezekiel is this amazing vision found in the 37th chapter of his book to begin to preach to the bones and to tell the bones that they were going to come together - they were going to form skeletons - muscles and flesh was going to be placed back on the bones - and that breath was going to come from the four corners of the earth and fill those reformed bodies. What was once dead and dry and dusty was going to be an army once again. And because Ezekiel had the vision - because he could see what others could not - because he was willing to look where others would not - because he was willing to yield his heart and his mind to a God who's vision is greater than our own - God showed him an ever greater vision than bones coming to life. He painted for Ezekiel the picture of an entire nation, having being discarded on the trash heap of life, left for dead, but now restored, brought out of captivity and resurrected in their own land.
You see when we begin to look with vision, God can then show us just how great HIS vision can be. Do you have faith to believe for more than what you have right now? Can you see God doing more with your life than what's been done so far? Are you willing to look for the masterpiece although right now it looks like finger paint? Are you willing to visualize the best seller, even though right now, it seems like a few ramblings in a blog :-) ? Are you willing to reach for God's best, even though you feel like you've just been getting the leftovers? Right now, it may seem like a bunch of dry bones - but I'm seeing an army marching out of captivity into a prepared land of it's own. Right now, my life may seem broke, busted and disgusted but I'm seeing God's very best lived out in me, regardless of what others may see or think. What do you see? What do you really see?
So for now, I'm not in need of glasses. My son, he got a really cool pair. We left the ones that could have served as sand blasting goggles in the store. But today, I'm inviting you to put on, not the glasses from Lenscrafters, rather the ones from the MasterCrafter - see with GodVision - look for what He has and what He can do and allow your faith to rise - and dream the impossible dream - have faith for what others doubt - explore where others say is impossible. Walk in faith and not fear - trust in the vision that God has for you.
Until next time - I love each of you and am believing God to expand my vision and yours too - RP
