The Four Questions That Vision Can Answer

In 1981 an Italian Intermarine Company, which built ships on a river feeding into the Mediterranean Sea, celebrated when they landed their biggest contract to date. They had been hired by the Malaysian government to build three massive military ships. In the nearly two years it took to build them they failed to foresee one very serious obstacle: between the port, where the ships were assembled, and the access to the sea sat one beautiful but TINY bridge. Not one of those ships would be able to pass under it. When the company realized the issue they pleaded with the city to allow them to dismantle and rebuild the bridge after bringing the ships through. Their hopes for future contracts were ruined when the city council said no. Those ships never sailed on open waters. So there, in that harbor, sat three colossal reminders of why having vision matters.

Vision is the ability to see what’s UPSTREAM and what’s DOWN RIVER.

THE WORD

12The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So, he divided his property

between them. 13“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.

- Luke 17:12-14

Though we most often refer to this parable in Luke 17 as "The Lost Son" we know it's really a story about two lost sons. One lost in the world, the other lost in his pride. But at the root of these two sons' lives is really the same issue: they both lacked vision.

Vision can answer these four pivotal questions in life:

1. WHO AM I? (IDENTITY)

You will never be able to properly identify your calling, your purpose, or your values until you first identify yourself. In the parable, the youngest son's downfall began when he rejected the most CRUCIAL aspect of his identity: SON. Rather than identifying as a son to a loving father he chose to identify with the world, its systems, the wealth he possessed, and eventually as a slave.

The older son, on the other hand, was having a different identity crisis. He understood he was a son, and therefore remained loyal, but he failed to identify his father as loving. Your identity IN Christ will only be as strong as your view OF Christ. If you believe in God but don't believe He knows and works what's best for you, you will struggle to maintain a right view of yourself. Christ is God's goodness manifest. Without an identity in Christ we will always have an identity in crisis.

While the younger son wanted his share in the beginning and the older son wanted a fattened calf in the end, they both came to the same conclusion: they had access to EVERYTHING the father has so long as they have the father. That's true for us too.

2. WHAT AM I CALLED TO DO? (MISSION)

It's no secret that the unemployment rate is directly tied to the suicide rate. People need tasks to accomplish, mountains to conquer, and goals to achieve. God built it into our very fabric when He created man (woman still intact mind you) and put him in the garden to work it. He gave us a mission.

Work is not punishment, it's purposeful. There's value in our work that eclipses just what it directly produces. Our faithfulness to our workplace, home, children, or church has a tremendous impact on our character, formation, and soul as well as that of others.

The youngest son missed the mission. Any time you make money the mission you're in for a rude awakening. When he found himself without a dime left and living in filth he didn't long for the money, he longed for his father. As he sat in that low moment he came to the conclusion that he'd rather go home and serve his father's vision than stay there and have no vision at all.

And therein lies the key to obtaining a mission in life. If you lack vision, go serve someone else's! Give yourself to the mission and vision of your church, your spiritual leader, your employer, a friend. Find a visionary and partner with them to achieve whatever it is God has placed in front of them.

I'm a firm believer that you cannot have a vision of your own until you've served someone else's first.

3. HOW AM I CALLED TO DO IT? (VALUES)

A lot of people set goals and make resolutions at the beginning of the New Year only to see hardly any real change. Setting a goal is easy. Identifying the steps, forming the habits, and creating the rhythms to accomplish the goal is the hard part.

Those things we hold most valuable in life are the things we build our life around. The key to accomplishing your life's mission or fulfilling God's calling is to align your values with your vision.

When the youngest son realized he had made a huge mistake he worked out a plan to slowly win back his father's favor. His values shifted right there in the pig sty. No longer would he live for money or walk entitled, instead he was going to go home and serve with humility.

Jill and I sat down during our first year of marriage and identified several values that we wanted to build our lives on. Prayer, stewardship, generosity, exercise, and world missions are a few of our core values. Everything we do, we do with these things in mind. Having values creates healthy boundaries for your life. When you know what those values are, you know where your time, money, and energy should go.

The most dangerous thing you can have is PROVISION without A VISION. What landed the younger son in trouble is when he had tons of money at his disposal but no idea how to manage it. Values are ultimately what will enable you to carry out the vision by giving you much needed direction and discipline.

4. WHY DO I EXIST? (PURPOSE)

People will work for the WHAT but they will die for the WHY. Our lives are meant to reflect purpose. We were made ON purpose FOR a purpose. But that's only true in the context of a God who created, corrected, and called humanity. A society who rejects that idea ultimately rejects all meaning and purpose to the individual. No wonder so many people are walking around today depressed!

This parable ends with two sons being reconciled to their Father and being reinstated in their purpose. Vision is about more than just accomplishing and achieving, it's about ABIDING. It's about knowing I am where I am and I am who I am with a purpose because the Lord intended it.

Whenever I begin to feel intimidated about leading a church, making disciples, or raising kids in this day in age (which is quite often to be honest), I find solace in knowing God ordained that I would be on the earth at this specific time, in this specific place, leading this specific church because He is a God of PURPOSE.

When I put my trust in God I gave up the possibility of always knowing WHY, because I determined knowing WHO is more important. I don't always know the plans, nor do I want to, because I'd rather know Him. What's reassuring is that HE knows the plans.

CONCLUSION

If you can answer the WHO, WHAT, HOW, and WHY of your life, you've got a vision. If you can't, then feel free to join the million others of us who are on a constant journey with the Lord to answer those questions one day, one decision, and one assignment at a time.