Vision is powerful.

About 350 years ago, a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a townsite. The next year they elected a town government. The third year, the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year, the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?

Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision.

Henry Ford said, “I’m looking for a lot of men with an infinite capacity for not knowing what can’t be done.” Helen Keller said the only thing “worse than being blind would be to be able to see but not have any vision.” When asked what he thought about when he struck out, Babe Ruth said, “I think about hitting home runs.”

Vision is powerful.

Here are four visionary steps you can take today.

STEP 1: REALIZE HOW MUCH IS AHEAD

When you are young, it is easy to dream about all the things the future has for you. As we get older and have more life experiences, there are more things to think back on from our past. However, there is always much more ahead than behind for all of us.

The gift of God is eternal life. Anyone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ has received the free gift of eternal life and has tapped into the life that our Infinite God shares with us. What is ahead of us is an unlimited and unending experience of living with and in God. There is more ahead than behind. As Christians, we have a lot to look forward to.

Do you realize how much is ahead?

STEP 2: ASK GOD FOR GREATER VISION

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach” (James 1:5). Anyone who asks God for wisdom will receive it, but we would do well to understand the word wisdom in this context. Dr. Tom Constable writes: “Wisdom is seeing life realistically from God’s perspective.” 

Wisdom is vision. There is no better vantage point to see what is happening in our lives than from God’s perspective. He is the ultimate gauge for both physical and spiritual things. God can see the future in the same way that we see the past. He has infinite knowledge of both actual and potential things to come. How awesome is it that this all-knowing Being has a plan for you?

Have you asked God for greater vision?

STEP 3: HONOR YOUR PAST BY NOT LIVING IN IT

Sometimes Facebook gives me the option to “share a memory” and it often causes me to reminisce and feel nostalgic. More often than not, I will choose not to share the memory, but it usually stays with me for a while after I see it. I think Facebook does this because they understand how much we like to remember things from the past.

The past is powerful. For many of us, there is a fear of moving forward in faith. When an organization or an individual begins to look and move forward, it may feel as though the past is not being honored. However, it is the past that has brought you to where you are and has prepared you to take the next step. The past prepares you for progress. Our past was not designed to get us where we are. Our past was designed by God to get us where we are going.

Are you honoring the past by not living in it?

STEP 4: GLANCE BACK BUT GAZE FORWARD

Have you ever thought about why the windshield on your car is so much larger than the rearview mirror? I suppose it would be difficult to move forward if your vision was dominated by what is behind you. When driving, it is important to remember that we should glance back but gaze forward.

Imagine if you saw someone driving and they were staring into their rearview mirror the whole time. Unless they were driving in reverse, some bad things could happen. The past must be viewed with the proper perspective, or it can paralyze an organization and keep it from moving forward.

Are you glancing back and gazing forward?

Soon after the completion of Disney World, someone said, “Isn’t it too bad that Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?” Mike Vance, creative director of Disney Studios, replied, “He did see it; that’s why it’s here.”

Vision is powerful. With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without a clear vision, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.

Vision is powerful.