How's Your Vision?

His cheek was bright red, his lips trembling, and I could see him fighting back tears as he ran to me on the sidelines looking for fatherly comfort. I kissed his forehead and tousled his hair. Gently I said, “You have to remember son, always keep your eye on the ball.” It was years ago when my son Gabriel was very young and had just started playing soccer. He'd been hit hard by a soccer ball that caught him unaware.

Actually, “Keep your eye on the ball!” was one of the most frequently yelled directives to those tiny soccer players. As we parents proudly looked on, our miniature athletes often appeared confused, running pell-mell about the field, their activity looking more like a Three Stooges video clip than a soccer game. They were eager and enthusiastic, but it was obvious to any observer, many of them still lacked a real vision about the purpose of the game. Of course, that came with time and practice.

Anyone who has ever excelled at a sport knows how important it is to maintain focus and have vision. Vision involves not only understanding the purpose of the activity, but possessing the ability to visualize successfully completing the play. The skilled athlete can see themself executing the perfect golf swing, sinking the rebound shot, or performing the faultless gymnastic floor exercise.

The vision capacity of the inexperienced athlete is limited, for they are not sure what a successful skill looks like or feels like. It is the responsibility of the coach to implant a clear vision within them by providing, modeling, and pointing out relevant cues, critiquing their efforts to improve skills, and providing them with multiple ways to practice skill acquisition. Over time this vision becomes incorporated in the athlete’s unconscious and becomes second nature in their performance. An athlete who doesn't develop this type of vision will never go very far.

This same principle applies to the game of life. People with a clear vision about their purpose and destiny are confident, hopeful, persistent, decisive, and willing to take risks. They are the movers and shakers who make things happen, who achieve their goals. By contrast, people without such vision frequently waste a lot of their time, ability and energy pursuing dead ends. They have difficulty making decisions and setting priorities and often feel frustrated with the lack of purpose they experience. Visionless people also frequently become slaves to the mundane because they are too cautious to take risks.

How's your vision? Father God warns us in Proverbs 29:18, that we must have a vision for our life or we will stumble in confusion and fail to accomplish anything significant. He also makes it clear in Ephesians 2:10 that He has a vision for our life, one that will use our abilities to their best advantage and provide a full, satisfying life for us.

Father God promises us that His life coach, the Holy Spirit, will guide us with this vision and instruct us in how to accomplish it (Galatians 5:25). He desires that each one of us will have a life of meaning and purpose, and a destiny that will fulfill us beyond anything we can imagine.

Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM. This is the weekend of our annual Revival Alliance Conference, and also our Vision Sunday as we celebrate the 19th anniversary of HRock Church.

Pastor Che