The proverb is true, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18) Vision is central living a Spirit-led life. Vision is a powerful motivator, and it helps clarify direction and decisions as we move forward. There truly is power in vision.

It is also true that vision needs to come from the right source. Too often we equate our personal hopes and dreams with divinely inspired vision. When that happens, we can easily find ourselves striving toward something destructive, or typically, something unrealistic. While most of our self-made dreams are not evil, they can be misguided, and pursuing the wrong vision can lead to frustration and disappointment.

While I was in seminary, I spoke to my advisor about some of my disillusionment with church life. She was a wonderful person and an excellent advisor. I knew she would have good insight and put my fears and frustrations to rest. I never expected her response. I told her I was disillusioned and she said, “Good.”

It was one of the few times I was truly speechless. How was this a good thing? I thought she misunderstood me and when I clarified my comment, she gave me the same response. When I asked her how she could say that, she said, “Think about the words you just used. You said you were dis-illusioned. That means you are no longer embracing an illusion, and that is good.”

It took some time for that truth to take hold. I confess, I really wanted her to give me some new insight that would help my dream become reality. Instead, she wanted me to adjust my vision to fit reality. It wasn’t that she didn’t want me to dream big, or to work for something better. Instead, she wanted me to face what is so that I could accurately, and faithfully, embrace a healthy vision for the future.

Real vision is birthed out of reality. Too often, we want to believe that one small change will make everything better. If we just complete our education, get vocational validation, or move to new location, our life will be better, or so we want to believe. We desperately want to embrace a reality that is just an illusion. Things are what they are, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change. Real change, however, can only happen when we accept reality.

One of my favorite quotes from Jesus is, “In this life you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) I love this because Jesus is real. He doesn’t sugarcoat reality, or offer some abstract utopia. He says it like it is. Life will have trouble, but you need to have hope.

True vision never denies reality. It embraces it, and then looks to a future where real change can take place. This is something much more than the common comment, “It is what it is.” That is birthed from a defeatist position. It suggests that there is no hope for change. God-led vision says, “it is what it is, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.”

We need vision, but that vision needs to come from God. Our own dreams may seem plausible, but they are not what they appear. When vision comes from us, it is not grounded in the full picture. However, when it comes from God, is embraces the full reality of what is, and the large picture of what God can do. When we prayerfully let God plant the vision in our hearts and minds, we can see things as they really are, no illusion, and we also see what they can, and should be.

So, today, let’s set aside our wishes and embrace God’s vision. Not only we will find peace in our hearts, but we will begin working for what really can be.

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There is nothing quite like knowing you are on your way! There is a sense of excitement and joy that comes from each new beginning in our lives. We feel things begin to tremble as we begin to launch and we know that we are underway, something amazing is about to begin. The anticipation is tangible. Even facing some fear and the unknowns, we know the adventure is starting.

Last week, I had the pleasure and privilege of officiating the wedding of a very dear friend and her fiancé. Standing before them as they shared their vows and exchanged rings, it was easy to see the joy on their faces, and everyone felt their anticipation for the new life that they were embarking on in that moment.

I always share a few words with each couple I bless in marriage, and I make sure to mention that not every day ahead will be as utopic as their wedding day. Challenges will certainly come, and there is no way to predict what awaits in the future. What is sure is that they are joining their lives together with each other and with God, and they will, through the strength of those relationships, be able to face whatever comes their way.

Such significant moments come with joyful expectancy, and a healthy dose of respect for the unknowns of the future. It can be a wedding, the birth of a child, a new vocation, or a new calling. These, and other similar moments, become launching pads into God’s future, and when we embrace them in their fullness, there is much to celebrate.

In the Book of Revelation, God says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5) In the very text that epitomizes God’s future for humanity, there is the promise that God is making everything new. When we walk in faith, we are assured that God is working to re-create us, and our circumstances. Not only is this a promise of hope, but it is a definition of life. Day-by-day, God’s new life for us is being revealed and created.

To say we soar with Christ is an excellent description of what our life of faith is truly like. We continue to climb higher with him, and we experience greater vistas of beauty and wonder. What was once our ceiling, now becomes the floor for the next step of the journey. What once seemed difficult is now commonplace, and what was only a dream becomes reality. With each stage and step, our ability to see more and dream bigger dreams increases.

It would be easy during the shaking and rattling of lift off to back out or change our mind. The immediate experience of that moment can be intimidating, but it is only a short season that is leading to something far more beautiful that we ever expected. Soaring with Christ is a wonderful thing.

When I was younger, I took lessons toward gaining a private pilot’s license. I still remember the day my instructor got out of the plane after we landed and said, “You are ready to solo. Take her up yourself.” My stomach was in my throat. My heart was beating fast, and it was hard to breathe. The thought of my lift off was very intimidating. There were many hours of theory and practice behind me, but this was the real thing.

Sitting at the end of the runway, I pushed the throttle forward and the plane began to move, slowly at first, but rapidly picking up speed. About halfway down the runway, I felt the wheels leave the ground. I was far from steady, but I was flying. In moments I was hundreds of feet above the earth and enjoying an experience I will never forget. Soaring around the airport was amazing. The view was beautiful, and I felt so alive. It wasn’t long before it felt normal to climb into the cockpit and take off by myself.

Soaring with Christ comes with the same intimidating fears, but the reward is worth facing those fears. Nothing we experience compares with the wonder and amazement that comes from the choice to say, “Yes!” Lift off is worth it. We are meant for it.

Whatever God is calling you into today, say, “Yes!” Soaring in faith is an exciting experience. May God’s blessing be yours for the journey!

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Once, while traveling in a boat, Jesus taught his disciples to beware of the yeast of the religious leaders. Jesus wanted them to be cautious of what they allowed to grow within their spirits, their thoughts, and their actions. It was a simple lesson, but one that quickly became much more significant, for the disciples heard a different focus in Jesus’ words. Instead of being concerned with the spiritual issue at hand, they began to discuss with one one another their belief that Jesus was concerned that they only brought one loaf of bread with them.

The situation is only amplified by the fact that the disciples watched earlier, as Jesus took a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish and used them to feed thousands of people. He did this in two separate occasions, yet the disciples were still arguing over bread in the boat, believing Jesus was concerned about what they would eat. They were unable to lift their vision to see the larger truths of Jesus’ spiritual message, and God’s provision through Jesus himself. These precious followers of the Savior struggled to see the miraculous gift that was right in front of them.

Hearing their conversation, Jesus interrupts them to address the situation. The Gospel of Mark tells the conversation this way: Jesus said, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8:17-21)

I wonder how much frustration Jesus felt at this point. I am sure Jesus’ compassion far exceeds mine, but I know how disheartening it can be when the people you love and minister with seem to keep missing the point. A few instances come to mind:

After preaching a strong sermon on why gossip is so destructive and should not be a part of Christian conversation, I walked into the entryway to find several people who only moments ago were shouting, “Amen!” deep in a personal gossip festival.

I frequently preach on the power of words, encouraging people to watch the negativity of their tongue. Many times, these services conclude with conversations where people pour out the litany of everything wrong in their lives and the world.

A personal favorite is the ubiquitous, “It’s too bad the people who needed to hear that weren’t here to hear it, pastor.” Of course, this is usually spoke by people who really needed to hear it themselves.

There is a long list of similar situations, but these are not the concerns that truly affect and concern me. What really challenges me is that I do the same thing, and I do it repeatedly. Lessons of faith and trust learned in experiences with Jesus along my journey, seem quickly forgotten in the face of a new problem, or difficult season.

When I look back over all of the compassion and provision God demonstrated in my life, it is hard not to believe that I am cared for in my current circumstances, and that God is not planning provision for my future. The problem is, frequently, I don’t look back. I become so focused on the issue I am facing at the moment that I forget to remember what I learned along the way. So, when faced with a financial concern, I tend to focus on my immediate need and neglect all of the times God miraculously met my need in the past. When faced with a difficult message to craft, I fail to remember the inspiration I previously received. You get the picture.

This kind of selective memory weakens our faith and inhibits our actions. It applies to disciples in the boat with Jesus, to me when I face challenging circumstances, and to all of us when we forget the places the power of God blessed us in the past. When we lose sight of where we’ve been and who goes with us, we lose the vision that propels us forward through our difficulties.

Jesus asked the disciples, “Do you not yet understand?” When I say it to myself, I usually ask, “Are you slow to see?” However the question is asked, it is a necessary challenge to our vision. When we look back and remember the power of God at work in our lives, we find the faith to look forward believing that God is, “able to exceedingly, abundantly beyond all we can ask or imagine,” through his power that is at work within us. It is in this knowledge that trust, vision, and hope are found. We may be slow to see, but once we do, we capture a vision that knows no boundaries!

I challenge you to join me in a quest to remember the powerful lessons we learned. We have been taught by God along the way. If we remember those valuable lessons, the future will be more exciting, more amazing than we we can imagine, and it will be filled will a host of new, more wonderful lessons to learn. May we all have eyes to see.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

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As the news media began reporting the forecast of a severe winter storm near the end of last month, people began to prepare for the worst. In spite of living in an area that sees plenty of snow, ice, and cold, people became increasingly afraid of what would happen. Maybe it was due to the way it was reported, or possibly because of previous experiences, nevertheless, fear was growing.

I went to the store the night the storm was to begin to pick up milk, bread, and a few other things we needed. I was not there to prepare for the storm, but it was clear many people already were. The cereal aisle was very empty as we’re the canned goods. A quick conversation with an employee revealed that the store was slammed with business by people preparing for the worst.

We do that sometimes. We hear a negative report, our emotions take hold, and we begin acting out of fear. We forget our strengths and our trust in God and begin making rash decisions trying to protect ourselves from an unknown future. At times, those decisions are downright foolish. The grocery store cashier told me of numerous people who loaded up on perishable items in preparation for losing the power to keep them. Fear will do that.

The Bible tells us that God, “did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) It is easy to give in to the negative report. It is easy to follow the fearful path of the masses around us, but we are not called to that path. We are a people of faith in the power of Almighty God. It is God who, in the face of intimidating circumstances, gives us a sound mind and the power to act with love and faith.

The Great April Storm that wasn’t is a prophetic image. All too often the negative, fearful report is wrong, and we find we surrendered much our lives afraid of what would not happen. As the people of the Resurrection, we can be prepared, but ultimately, our trust is in God. Together, let’s go forward; laying aside our fears, trusting in God and embracing his vision and power for our lives.

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I already indicated my desire to stay where I was and the church shared their hope that I would remain their pastor. We were comfortable with each other and enjoying ministry together, then God stepped in with another opportunity to follow into something new.

Most of us enjoy being comfortable. We like the familiar and the predictable. There is a sense of peace that comes from knowing what to expect and where we fit in. In short, we don’t like to change, yet change is a given and can be one of God’s exciting blessings.

The church I serve, and the one I will be serving, are both facing a myriad of questions as we enter this transition. Likewise, I have questions of my own. In the past few days, as I began my advance planning, I realized I have little idea what my new worship services look like. I do not know what my weekly schedule will be, nor all of the expectations that will be awaiting me. I have only begun to become acquainted with the community and region and will have a list of questions when I arrive. My friends, my family, and everything I’ve known since I began my ministry will be hours away. My life is going to change.

It would be easy to be intimidated by all of the unknowns, but it is equally possible to be excited and energized by all of the changes. There will be new people to meet and minister with, new treasures to discover, new opportunities to share my gifts and to grow, and new encounters with God. The familiar will give way to the fascinating, and the comfortable to the creative. It will not easy, but it will be good, fun, and life-giving because God is at the center.

Too often we run from the blessing of being with God on the journey, by entrenching ourselves in what we already know and have. When we open our lives to God’s ideas and plans, the possibilities are endless.

Two scriptures have been on my mind though this transition. The first has carried me though from the beginning, “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for good to give to you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) the second, is also a favorite, “Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20)

With the truth of these two wonderful promises at work, and placing all of my hope in God, how can the future be anything other than amazing?

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There is a stanza in this classic hymn that includes the words, “He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free.” I cannot begin to imagine how many times I sang these words throughout my life, but I remember the day they broke through my filters and I heard them with fresh ears.

In the midst of my own struggle with parts of my past, the idea that canceled sin could still have power gripped my heart. Certainly, God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ is complete, but we can allow those forgiven sins to affect the way that we live. If we choose to perpetuate those former sins, or if we choose to live under their guilt, we will not experience the fullness of life God intended for us.

Too often, we get lost in our past and we miss what God is doing in the present to prepare us for our future. We wallow in self-condemnation, self-pity, or some other burdensome understanding of our lives, while we neglect the freedom that comes from laying such burdens on the Lord. It is a tremendous tool of the enemy to keep us bound in false chains and away from living our destiny in God.

Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Clearly, there was forgiveness and a call to a better way, but there is also the promise that living beyond sins of the past is truly possible, especially in light of the power of God to make it so.

While at a pastor’s prayer retreat, the leader of one of our sessions offered the following insight:

Anytime the devil brings up your past it is because…
1) He hopes you are ignorant of the truth
2) He fears your future
3) He wants to rob you of God’s best

There is powerful truth in those words. Just like the truth found in the words of the hymn reveals the power of cancelled sin to imprison us, the revelation shared at that retreat reminds us that our past is in the hands of God and through his mighty acts of salvation, we are no longer a slave to that past. We need to know the truth that we are delivered from our past, that God has a future for us, and that evil is always working to steal God’s best from our lives, but we do not have to surrender it.

If we are walking with God, it is time to lay down the heavy weight of our past and its sins. It is time to embrace the freedom and newness of life given to us by God while we walk in its joy and wonder. It is time to allow the Holy Spirit to break the power of canceled sin and set us free from our self-made prisons. It is time to live the abundant life that is already ours.

Today is a great day to leave the weight of our past behind, choose life and walk in it toward the future divinely created for us. May it be so.

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I struggled with this for years and still have to bring these thoughts under control. I convinced myself that once I graduated from college, I would feel secure in my position and ready to lead. Following graduation, I revised the plan with a new necessary accomplishment. However, no matter what stage I completed, those feelings never completely took hold. It was not until a good friend encouraged me to look at what I was doing, that I realized that lasting feelings were not ever going to be the result of an accomplishment. Life would always offer challenges and there would always be something waiting in the future with the false promise of secure feelings. My answer was not in my accomplishments, but my attitude.

That is not always easy to hear. We like to believe that our feelings and perspectives are the result of the actions of others or situation we are in. These may influence us, but ultimately, our experience will be shaped by our beliefs and our attitudes.

There is a wonderful story in the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul and Silas are imprisoned for stirring up trouble. It seems that their preaching about Jesus made some people quite upset and the disturbance landed them in jail. This was not just a night in a cell with the promise of, “leave town and don’t come back.” The morning held the real possibility of torture and maybe even death.

Locked in their cell and guarded by the jailer they faced a challenging night. Who could blame them for fear and concern, maybe even a little anger at the people or God for allowing this to happen? This was unfair and not likely what they were expecting. It was exactly the type of situation that leads to discouragement and depression. Yet, that was not their choice. Here, in the face of danger and death, they were singing.

Paul and Silas made a decision. They put their trust in God and lifted their eyes to a bigger picture than their circumstances, to a God who was larger than anything they faced. They allowed their spirits to take the lead and so, looking squarely at their dark reality, they chose to believe, to sing, and to praise in their prison.

The result was not only their spiritual freedom, but their physical freedom as well, and the blessings did not stop there. This witness to their faith changed the lives of others in prison with them, including the guard. Their willingness to rejoice in their unpleasant circumstances changed lives, and continues to do the same as their story is told 2000 years later.

We face prisons of many kinds in life. Some are made with concrete and bars, while others we fashion brick by brick within our minds and spirits. In those confining moments and seasons, we can lament our circumstances, bemoan our misfortune and give up on our future, but there is another choice. We can decide, like Paul and Silas, to offer our praise in spite of our circumstances. We can declare God’s goodness and his divine possibilities in the face of pain and fear. We can believe with action in the presence of the temptation to doubt. We can praise in our prison.

When we release our faith in these moments, cell doors open, we find freedom and the people around us get changed. I once heard a youth speaker say, “People are waiting on the other side of your obedience.” Maybe, they are also waiting on the other side of our praise. May we find the strength in God to praise in our prison and break free in our faith.

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Occasionally, people would erect standing stones, large stones placed in an upright position that made it clear it was done by human hands. At other times, piles of stones would be made for the same purpose. This way, along with creating places to remember the mighty acts of God, symbols were established that helped encourage the telling of the story to future generations. As people traveled, a child or new member to the community might see these altars and stones and ask, “What happened here?”

For me, one of the most significant parts of these symbols was their redemptive focus. Instead of merely being remembrances of events, they were places to remember God’s activity in the midst of human experience, even in the face of painful circumstances.

Today, many of us will gather in worship and remember. We will remember God’s activity in our lives. We will remember the saving act of Jesus Christ and the acts of so many followers of Christ that made the Good News known throughout the world. We will remember our corporate and personal history with God and give thanks for God’s activity in our story. And, being the tenth anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we will remember those images and stories as well.

It is important for us to remember significant days of our journey, even days of great pain, but as we remember, we must keep in mind that we are a people whose trust and hope is in the Lord. We can reflect on the tragic loss that occurred that day, on those who lost their lives, and on those who gave of themselves to respond. We can pause to ponder the brokenness of our world, the horror of violence and the pain of devastating loss. We can do all these things, but as people of faith, we do them as a form of sacred remembrance.

We do not remember to sensationalize the past, nor is our recollection just an expression of patriotism. We certainly do not remember for the sake of anger and hatred. We are a people who do not grieve as the world grieves. We remember so that we, like all those who went before us, can affirm God’s activity in our past and in our present. We look back, so that we can look forward, believing in God’s promises for our future.

This does not mean that we are not filled with deep emotion, or that we deny our feelings. Rather, we own those emotions and feelings and present them to God. We allow our pain to become a passion for change. Where we would be tempted to embrace anger, we choose to take hold of peace. Where we would want to fracture relationships, we seek to build them instead. We choose to look for God in the midst of our story, so that we can tell God’s story in the face of our adversity.

None of us who recall the images and events of that day, will likely forget the fear, pain and emptiness we felt. Hopefully, we will not forget the images of compassion and service we saw that day as well. Hopefully, we will not lose sight of what held us together and Who holds us in the palm of his hand today as he did that day. Then, as those who remember, not just events, but the actions of God and people who demonstrated the heart of God, we can work for a better world. We can choose to be people who demonstrate divine love, compassion and peace.

Today, we remember, but then it is time to go to work and be the people of God and seek God’s will in our day. It is the time to be the city set on a hill that cannot be hid, a beacon of light to a darkened world. It is the time to demonstrate by word and deed that there is another way, a way that leads to life. May our sacred remembrance lead us all to holy actions that future generations may look back and remember what God did to bless the world through us.

Peace be with you, with the world and with us all.

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Pastor David Cho of Seoul, Korea, pastors the largest church in the world. His oversight includes more than 500,000 people and a tremendous global ministry. Once, during an interview, Pastor Cho was asked how he organized the ministry. What was this successful pastor’s secret to such a powerful impact? He humbly suggested that the power principal he based his leadership upon was simply this, “I pray and I obey.”

To our ears this is “nice,” but we are easily tempted to think that this was just a simplistic spiritual response. However, this truly is a powerful spiritual principle. When we seek to hear from heaven, then act on earth we connect with the heart of God and with the heart of people. If Jesus thought it was important to hear God’s heart in every situation, then you and I need to follow that model. We too want to be able to say that we only do what we see our Father in heaven doing.

Today we enter into the season of Lent, a forty-day period (plus Sundays) where we participate in acts of self-denial and reflection in preparation for the celebration of Easter. Often we participate in the self-denial and reflection, yet we miss the preparation. We give up a favorite food or hobby as a way to honor God during this season and our acts of devotion have a profound impact upon us. Still, there is even more to be gained through our Lenten activities. If we are open to the Spirit, willing to look for heaven’s vision for our lives, we will find that we are preparing for something new God wants to do in and through us.

When we listen to God’s direction and obediently follow, we invite the power of divine possibility into our lives and we increase our effectiveness in ministry. We move into a greater fulfillment of our destiny and we begin to experience the satisfaction that comes from walking in the pleasure of God.

Such spiritual success does not come by chance. It does not come by sitting on the sofa and waiting for something important to happen. Instead, we prepare ourselves to live out our calling by learning to pray and obey.

I pray this season of preparation will lead you further in the destiny God has for you. God is confident of your ability if you put your trust in him and are willing to follow his lead. May it be so.

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