When Your Vision and Your Reality Don’t Match

I had a vision for a major project several years ago. The project is ongoing, and I’ve worked really hard at it, but it looks nothing like what God showed me. What should I do?

Well the first thing is pretty simple, did you hear from God? In my case I believe with every fiber of my being that I did. So the next thing to explore is why the gap between the vision and the reality?

Disobedience? Have I strayed from God’s call? Am I in sin doing something which God cannot bless? I’ve searched my heart and while I am far from perfect, I don’t think that’s the case here. I’m trying to serve the Lord with honor and integrity.

Am I not doing something I need to do? I think this is part of it…

Do I not have everything I need? This is absolutely part of it but here’s the thing. Am I being faithful with what I have right now or am I wasting my time lamenting what I do not have? I do get stuck there sometimes, but I have to move on in faithfulness. My father has everything and everyone I need and my suspicion is these things (and people)will be released as I am faithful.

Am I just impatient? YES!!! but God’s timing is perfect so I have to trust that if I am doing what I am called to do, God will act on my behalf until the vision becomes reality.

The time between a vision and that vision becoming reality can be frustrating or invigorating and the choice is largely up to us. God always knows what He’s doing. In those places of frustration, I have a choice, I can quit or I can persevere. I can blame others or I can examine myself. I can be faithful or unfaithful. I choose to press on, giving God my best each day. That’s really the only thing we can do.

Trust God with your vision and keep walking toward it.

Step by step, faithfully…

Enough?

Have you ever caught yourself saying, “Well I would do this or that or the other thing, if only I had enough of__________”? Today’s video blog challenges you to get beyond that to look at what you already have and be faithful with it. Don’t look at what you don’t have, get creative with what you do.

What Do You Do With Your Time?

I’m in a pretty good stretch right now. I feel like the Lord is moving and I am headed in the right direction. It’s an awesome time and I praise God for it, but there’s always this little voice in me that says, “Just wait, something will mess it up.” I hate that voice and I suspect I know where it comes from.

Let’s face it we all have our struggles good times and bad–times when everything goes right and times where it feels like you can’t do anything right. The question is what do we do with those times. The right answer is to give the good times, the bad times and all the ones in the middle to Lord and trust Him to use them all for good. Romans 8:28 assures us that He will do just that for all those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. If you’re a believer, that’s you. If you’re not a believer, why not trust God and become one?

This is a good time for me and I give it to God, because while it is good, I know my God can make it great.

What do you do with your time?

AMOKArts ArtChurch: Be the Body, Born This Way

A message that explores why we do what we do and what we should be doing. There is a plan and purpose for your life. In this series we will help you find it.

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
1 Samuel 17; 2 Timothy 3
You can also download your own chart here.

Control

I’ll admit it, some days I can be a control freak, but recently I have been being pushed and prodded on it. You see, I’m teaching my son to drive. In Pennsylvania a driver with a learners permit must log 50 hours behind the wheel before obtaining his drivers license. This has been a somewhat trying process. It’s not because he’s doing badly, It’s because of something else. See in the beginning I found myself clutching the door handle and pressing an imaginary brake pedal on the floor, and finding myself envying his driver ed teacher who has a real brake pedal on her side. This morning several months later, I rarely touched the door handle and I don’t think I pressed my iBrake (imaginary brake, yes I’m trademarking that) once. See all my clutching and iBraking was a quest for the one thing I didn’t have…control. My son is nearly ready for his license and he is becoming a good safe driver, but in order to get him there, I had to give up control.

I’m experiencing something similar today with a live performance art project. I was asked a few months back. Usually I do this type of thing solo but this time I will be collaborating with another artist. We came up with a few ideas settled in on one and I did some sketches. I sketched something that I thought would be workable in the time allotted and the other artist had a different idea. I knew what I had to do. The artist with whom I will be collaborating will be the one who will be working with the people who will be reached tonight. I needed to give her control and I did which leaves me in a strange place.

I confess I think her designs are very aggressive, good, but aggressive and it will be a big undertaking to finish. That being said if we can make it work it is going to look fantastic. Here’s the thing. I have given her control and I will go there and serve and do my very best to make it work. Pray for me though because I have to admit this is a new place for me. Usually I have planned and replanned and then planned again. I have it down to a science by the time I step onto the stage. Tonight I am showing up with my brushes and hoping I can do it. It’s a little tough to not be in control.

In all of our undertakings, especially those things we do to serve the Lord, we face the same thing. We can plan and prepare and do all kinds of things to be ready, but the unknown factors should make us realize we are not ultimately in control. For quite some time now, I have been sharing things on this blog that really deal with our faithfulness; being faithful with what we have (talents, skills, opportunities, etc.) but there is another side to faithfulness. Ultimately we need to put all of this in God’s hands and give Him control. When we give Him control we see the other side of faithfulness, God’s faithfulness to us.

I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight, all I can do is be faithful. I do know that God loves us and the people we are doing our work for tonight and He has a plan. I am trusting Him to be faithful and giving Him control. Tomorrow, I’ll let you know what happened.