I’ve been thinking quite a bit about vision lately. A couple months ago I heard an interesting story. I don’t remember who told it to me, so I can’t confirm it’s validity. However, I was told about a church that was given a significant financial gift. When I say significant, I mean in the multiple millions of dollars. How amazing, right? What a blessing! Unfortunately, it wasn’t for this church. Within a couple of years, the church was defunct, no longer in existence. Why? Because leadership didn’t know what to do with the money and fighting tore the church apart until nothing was left.

I don’t know the details of this particular situation, but if I had to guess, they had a vision problem. Either they didn’t have one, or it wasn’t nearly big enough. At least it wasn’t a million dollar vision. In the case of this church, a lack of vision was fatal.

It seems to me that a ministry with a God-sized vision would know exactly what to do with a gift of any size. That way a substantial gift would immediately be applied toward the vision… no questions asked, right? I believe that God calls us to things that are far bigger than we could ever do just on our own. Maybe that’s because he wants us to truly depend on him… keeping us humble.

I get it though. We’re so busy that we loose track of the vision. We can’t see the forest from the trees. That’s normal and natural. However, I think that it’s healthy for us to take a step back from time to time and refresh ourselves with the God-sized vision he’s called us to. Maybe for you it’s reading back through your journal. For others, it might be enjoying a lunch with fellow staff and dreaming about all the “what ifs” and “what should bes.” These exercises are critical to keeping the vision in front of us.

How clear is your vision? How big is it? Would you know what to do if someone gave you a million bucks tomorrow?