February 8: How Big Is Your Vision



"The real qualities of leadership are to be found in those who are willing to suffer for the sake of objectives great enough to demand their wholehearted obedience."

A friend of mine who consults CEO's of small companies tells me that over 90% of these firms operate on a re-active rather than a pro-active basis. In other words, they simply respond in a knee jerk fashion to market conditions: No great vision. Just daily… grinding… survival.

Aim at nothing and you are sure to hit it.

Many people circumscribe their lives to the same aimless, reactive, blandness: Putting out fires. Solving problems. Oiling the wheel that squeaks the loudest. Oppressive… boring… survival.

Bound by the tyranny of the urgent.

Perhaps our problem is that our vision is so small that it only merits a mediocre response.

One impassioned writer cried out against this mind numbing, visionless level of subsistence:

"Give me men to match my mountains:
Give me men to match my plains:
Men with empires in their purpose:
Men with eras in their brains."

Christ had an objective great enough to demand His wholehearted obedience: Your salvation.

"Jesus… who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame… " (Hebrews 12:2)

The "joy set before Him" was His vision of your redemption… Which resulted in His wholehearted obedience to the Father's will: The cross.

Tell me, do you have an objective in your life that is "great enough to demand your wholehearted obedience"? If not, life must be pretty stale stuff.

May I suggest that unless you have a vision – a dream – an objective that (1) Is bigger than your life, (2) Is linked to God's eternal purposes, and (3) Demands faith and sacrifice, you are already dead.

They just haven't set the date for the funeral.