Vision: How's Your Life Sight?

Me, My Church, & I

Vision: How’s Your Life Sight?

Habakkuk 2:1-4

"Poor eyes limit your sight; poor vision limits your deeds." -Franklin Field

"A blind man’s world is bound by the limits of his touch; an ignorant man’s world by the limits of his knowledge; a great man’s world by the limits of his vision." -E. Paul Hovey

[Mead, Frank S. 12,000 Religious Quotations. (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1965). p.465.]

Men with vision: military vision Alexander the Great
Julius Caesar
Napoleon Bonaparte
artistic vision Leonardo da Vinci
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
invention vision
Thomas Edison
Wilbur & Orville Wright
business/financial vision Sam Walton
Bill Gates
Steve Jobs

What is it about these individuals that allowed them to rise above everyone else? VISION

How did they accomplish and overcome insurmountable tasks? VISION

I. Vision: What Is It, And Why Do I Need It?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines vision as:

1. The faculty of sight
2. Something that is, or has been seen
3. Discerning perception

[The American Heritage Dictionary: Second College Edition. (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1982).]

Vision is being able to see.

John Maxwell says that, "Vision is...the ability to see...the faith to believe...[and] the courage to do."

Not merely perceiving, but being able so see the broader picture; the larger scope of life. It’s being able to take a step back from the situation to gain a larger perspective.

Chess example-easy to call shots from the outside (give advise), but not as easy as a player

Habakkuk- prophet, witnessed collapse of the kingdom, rise of Babylon, reign of injustice
"God what are you going to do?"

Bogged down
All he could see was the injustice before his eyes,
Not God working in the larger picture

He lacked total vision (so God gave it to him)


II. What Prevents Or Hinders Vision

Much like Habakkuk most of us live with a narrow focus on life.

We have allowed external factors and influences to hinder our vision, and ultimately define our lives.

Most of us lack control over our lives because we’ve surrendered that control to obligations and to people.

A. Finances

For some of us we allow our finances to limit our vision and dictate our lives. We find ourselves under the burden of debt: mortgage/rent, car, credit cards, loans, on and on the list goes, and we allow our finances to control our lives. We live our lives for the sole purpose of paying off debt.

B. Time

Some have allowed schedules to dictate their lives. We fill our schedules up- work, sleep, and in between we run hectically from one task to the next: the laundry needs to be cleaned, the dishes are dirty, the lawn needs mowing, Billy’s got a ball game after school, Suzie’s got ballet class, and the Joneses want us to stop by for a visit-and in the end we’ve left little to not time to make our own plans in life.

C. Family & Friends

For some of us its our family. We’re so busy maintaining the roles we have we can’t think of ourselves as anything other than "Emery’s dad, Shelley’s husband, Verlan’s son" We seem to lose any identity apart from these roles.

D. Job

And, finally, some have allowed their job to hinder their vision and to dictate their life’s purpose. They would say