Some have no vision. They are negative, pessimistic folks who tell you why it can’t be done or shouldn’t be done. They often think of themselves as “realistic”, but God wants to take us far beyond reality and the natural to the supernatural!
When the steamboat was invented it was set for a first trial in the Hudson River, and they say a man on the banks stood there saying, “They’ll never get it going.” Over and again he repeated this, until it started moving, at which time he promptly changed his tune to, “They’ll never get it stopped!” Helen Keller, “Worse than being blind would be to see, yet have no vision.”
Some have lost their vision. They once had it, but they let it go. Maybe they were hurt, discouraged, or grew too comfortable.
I hear all the time from pastors and leaders who have lost their vision. They say things like, you can’t get people in our area to go to church, you can’t get people to come to evening services or special revival meetings, you can’t get people to give to missions anymore. They’ve lost their vision!
A serviceman in a foreign country took a local bride, and they lived abroad together for years, all the while he told her about his home church back in the states, and how grand it was. He bragged and bragged until years later when they made a trip to the states.
He was so excited to show her his home church. They pulled up to a parking lot of weeds and potholes. All the exterior was broken down, and the door was ajar. They entered to a looted mess. The place was stripped and peeled of all value, and cob webs were everywhere.
He approached the altar at the front. Then he saw it, still there on the wall behind the pastor’s podium for all to see, a wood carving placed there years ago by one of the deacons he had fashioned himself, this verse of Proverbs 29:18, except the “W” of the first word had fallen off.
It now read, “Here there is no vision, the people perish.”
Only one thing is worse than having less, and that is settling for less as the norm. Apathy is a killer. And they say ignorance is bliss. Don’t settle. Don’t settle for less. Don’t settle for less than God’s best!
And don’t give up. If something in your life isn’t what it used to be, don’t give in and forget about the fact of what it ought to be, which is probably even better than how it used to be!
A farmer dug a well, but his mule fell into it. He rushed over and peered inside, and much to his surprise the mule was alive and standing on all 4’s! He thought, well, it’s too expensive to haul him out, and he’s so old, he’ll die soon anyway, I’ll just bury him!
He began to throw in shovelfuls of dirt. But each time he did the old mule would shake the dirt off of his back, and then stomp on that dirt! Over and again the dirt would fall upon him, and each time he’d just shake it off and step up, shake it off and step up! Eventually he had risen high enough to walk right out!
We need to be stubborn as a mule with our vision, and no matter what life throws on us or what others may heap upon our backs, just shake it off and step up and out!