We have a vision for a better future. The future is coming to the present. We don’t know (and can’t) exactly how it will all happen but we can live with a heightened sense of expectancy. We want to live ready, aware that our time is limited.
We want to live with a sense of urgency but not despair or anxiety. That is the beautiful tension of those with a vision: urgency not anxiety. We can’t make things grow. There is still a process in place. Life will force us to be patient.
But patience is not dullness. And while waiting for one thing to blossom over here we can start planting something else over here. That is really the baseline of mission work (or franchising). We start one thing here, then work on another over there.
We “diversify,” yet have a razor-like focus on the mission that connects the different things we do. Get a level up. What is it that connects your various interests? That is what you are really good at. Find that, lessen the space between us.
And think not only of the present. Think of the long-term, the long-long term. Think not only of your generation. Think also of ones that will follow. How will your vision bless and benefit the world that will follow yours?
Vision sees into the future, we have established that. But how far into the future? And whose future? Is it only ours? Is it for the broader human race? Or is it even our very small part of a much bigger tapestry, one we can only dream of?
The world is heading somewhere. We believe that or we believe nothing we do is of any real value, meaning, or construct. What we do now matters, and will matter for generations to come. Even if the world will one day burn.
It is worth it. The steps we take in our world and in our time matter. We are the pivot point for a world we can not even see. The music we make, the songs we write, the stories we tell will echo into that world. We write the anthems of the new world.
It’s like watching children play in nature, in our original playground. They are running around carefree, collecting sticks, acting intently and yet playfully and full of wonder. They work and they “toil” in the guise of play so it is utterly enjoyable.
Watching them brings to mind their future residency as citizens of a royal kingdom. Sure they could grow up believing this is all there is and soon all things will perish and nothing really lasts. Or, they could see such things as haunts of the next world.
In other words those moments of play and wonder are in fact almost portals into a different dimension, a future one that indeed is more accurate and “real” than our own. What they are tapping into is the future, our permanent residency someday.
That a kingdom of love, truth, and justice may actually exist is indeed a fairy tale for most adults. It is the stuff of children’s stories and make believe. Or, it is more real than we can imagine, and closer than we can believe. Indeed, it is here now!