Vision

Where [there is] no vision, the people perish (Prov. 29:18a, KJV). 

I've just visited a website of a church with a vision to be intentionally multi-ethnic. Just before that, I browsed a new site for a ministry designed to guide believers into connecting globally through  groups focusing on a specific social justice issue. On my Facebook feed, I keep up with the number of rescues daily for a trafficking rescue group. At one point I was on no fewer than 7 daily prayer point lists -- all with unique visions and emphases. I truly value vision.

But over the course of my time as a Christian I've probably fallen off the horse on every possible side on this issue. I look back and see times I've been:

• The apathetic Christian - focusing on myself and my own relationship with God without seeing the spiritual or physical needs of the world in which He placed me.
  
• The overly-distracted Christian - attempting to give equal attention to every vision and feeling condemned for not feeling more passionate about things.  
• The irritatingly-focused Christian - thinking my vision was seemingly ultimate and trying to convince everyone else it should be their vision too.

What I'm learning is that as with anything else, there is a Biblical balance to be found when talking about vision. What God has increasingly convicted me of is that what I perceive as "my" vision (or calling, or whatever word you use) - or even His vision for me - must always remain secondary to His big-picture purpose, and His "vision" as revealed in His word. Other translations of the well-known Proverb use the word "revelation" instead of "vision" and that helps me keep my own "vision" in perspective -- it's always secondary to His revelation as given in His Word.

Please don't think I'm diminishing the importance of vision. I love the visionaries in my life and a single-minded focus on a God-given task is critical in the work of the kingdom - without it we would have no completed Bible translations, to give just one example. The challenge comes when the single-minded focus turns myopic and we begin to view the focus as ultimate, rather than seeing it as one of many links in a chain far too complex for us to understand this side of heaven. That's why one of my all-time favorite missions quotes is this one from John Piper, which reminds me that even though the Bible exudes missions on every page, even that God-ordained vision is secondary to a greater purpose:

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Mission exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. (From Let the Nations be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions)

My paraphrase of that - my vision is not the ultimate goal of my life. Worship is. If I ever find myself pushing my cause of the month or minimizing certain ministries in my own mind, I need to stop and get on my face before God. Because He is doing something bigger than I could ever imagine, and it requires children's teachers and church kitchen ministries and water bottle distributions and food pantries and rescue missions and Bible translators and frontier missionaries and ... you get the picture. If it's based in truth and focused on His glory, it doesn't matter whose name is on it or whether it fits "my" vision. The disciples learned this one directly from the mouth of our Lord:

Mark 9:38-41 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, because no one who does a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to say anything bad about me.For whoever is not against us is for us. For I tell you the truth, whoever gives you a cup of water because you bear Christ’s name will never lose his reward.

I think there is much to be learned from losing ourselves in someone else's ministry. In recent weeks I've read of a missionary wife who left a country she loved so her husband could take a position for which he was uniquely gifted. After struggling to find "her ministry" she sensed God calling her to help others with their visions - just make herself useful in a variety of ways. Another couple is praying for a young woman who is in the process of giving up to a year to come to their remote tribal village and just be helpful with the children so the missionary wife can learn the language. In fact, if you read the New Testament there are a lot more Priscillas and Aquilas and Epaphratases and Onesimuses (helpers) than there are Pauls and Timothys (front line missionaries). Some missions strategists say that for every missionary on the field there should be a dozen "helpers" - not all on the field, some at home doing practical things like keeping up mission houses and cars that can be used on furloughs, managing financial accounts, sending mailings, posting new updates at church, and a thousand other tasks.

Have you been trying to find where you fit in this whole missions thing?  Giving is a great place to start, prayer is essential, not optional -- but when it comes to action, maybe God has a servant's role for you. Maybe He wants you to be on someone's team or to serve the larger cause of missions in some way. Examine your gifts and those things that stir your heart. Talk to your pastor or missions leader at church. Pray for open doors. And sit back and watch what happens when you commit to being a part of God's vision as revealed in His word - taking the Gospel to every tribe, tongue, nation, and people group.

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. (Rev. 7:9, NIV)