The nature of a vision 

“And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” Habakkuk‬ ‭2:2-3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Hello, trust we all enjoyed this past weekend? Mine was very hot, sunny, sticky & sweaty. It’s all good- part of the summer fun, I guess!

Today’s quote is a biblical account of God showing a vision to Habakkuk of what was going to happen to his people. They were to go into captivity under the oppressive Babylonian regime.

I want to highlight three words underlined here: write, make it plain and read. Although this Bible passage is not addressing a subject on vision casting, there are some elements we can infer from to talk about the nature of a vision

1. Write– the first step to a vision is documenting. Some have never had a vision. Where is it written? Most have wishes but not a vision. Anytime, you write a wish down, it moves to becoming a vision. I have come to realize that people generally don’t like writing. Writing is a discipline that needs to be cultivated. After God showed the future of the people of Judah to Habakkuk in the preceding chapter, he told Habakkuk in this chapter to write what he saw down. Believe in writing and start small- writing a line or two lines down every week. Whatever you feel, aspire or think to do, start writing it. The more you write, you spark a creative thought to that idea

2. Make it plain– a vision should be simple- straight to the point, easy to remember. Don’t jumble too many words into a vision, it becomes overwhelming and harder to achieve. It is difficult to reduce your vision into a line or two; it calls for a lot of critical thinking. For example, the church I belong to has an easy to remember line as the vision: “Gospel for everyone, church for every community”. If you ask any parishioner of that setting, he or she will be able to rattle it off their head. In my opinion, a vision shouldn’t be more than two lines. Out of your vision, you begin to outline your mission which can come in many steps to achieve that.

3. Reads it– the people in Habakkuk’s time had to be in the know of their future predicament. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to them, because God told them through a vision. What do I mean by reading? Focusing, giving your time and energy to the vision. It is one thing to write, another to devote your time to the fulfillment of that vision. ‘Reading’ your vision requires discipline on your part

Let me end with a personal example. I longed to speak to people beyond my sphere of influence and reach more people. I realized the way to do that was through writing. I had to decide what will I write on a Monday which is the first day of a working week to ANYONE reading. My vision was born for Pencilled Thoughts which is “inspiring and transforming one person at a time through writing“. I had to develop a mission statement for this blog which is “looking at life’s day to day issues through a biblical worldview”. So I have goals born out of this mission which is personal, but will let you in on one: in my first year, I wanted to pen down thirty articles, which I did

I hope you are encouraged today to go the extra mile in whatever journey you are on. Add +1 to whatever you are doing this week.

Please, I will like to read your comments and thoughts on this one. Your feedback means a lot to me. Don’t forget to also like, share and subscribe to this blog

Till I come your way again

Peace & Love