Cultivating Personal Vision

The spectrum of the church is composed of the colors of the individual living stones. Hence, the formation of a community vision depends critically on our personal vision. In this article we will discuss the nature of personal vision, ways to develop one's vision and create environment for its nurture, and the role that a community plays in encouragement and support.

1. My journey

Life Purpose

What is the purpose of my life? Experiencing Jesus in my junior college year allowed me to find God and meaning for my life. I can conclude that the general purpose of my life is to glorify God. However, the specific role that I play within God's grand design is not altogether apparent, and is only being revealed slowly in my walk with Him.

What is my role?

In the earlier days of my Christian journey, I focus entirely on the nature of specific actions or projects in which I interact with God, and stress on having "purely God's strength" in any spiritual endeavor, along the lines of "more of Him and less of me".

I constantly ask myself: Do I have the right motive? Do I have the right attitude? Is the task or project sufficiently prayed for? Will I use my methods or God's? Did I seek His preference sufficiently through prayer? Will I use my own strength, or rely on clearly His strength?

Even if the answers to these checklists were approved, then the next spiral stage of questions would be: Are the right motives coming from me out of selfish ambition, or purely from God? Are the right attitudes truly a result of dwelling sufficiently in the Spirit, or simply the consequences of the current social norm or sense of justice? Are the Godly ways simply a mindless application of biblical standards, or genuinely springing out of a God-seeking heart? Even if I am relying on God's strength, am I doing so while abiding in Him constantly?

No matter how many levels one has already performed these self-analysis, there is always the next level of meta-questions, essentially to question whether I have arrived at the last level using my own means, or derived from being abiding in Him. I try so hard to separate my natural talent and ability from doing any of God's work, fearing that my own strength may dilute the purity of God's will.

While I want so much for His glory and His ways to dominate over anything that I do in His name, and hesitate whenever there is a chance that my natural abilities may overshadow the evidence of His presence in the endeavor, the danger of constantly over-emphasizing these zealous self-criticisms is that I never get to act out anything.

I am free from these spiral levels of self-denial exercises only when I switch my attention from actions and events to people and hearts, and realize that: it is never through things and events that God is glorified, but through people's transformation in character, vision and faith, when their lives are touched by God.

In other words, while the physical miracles in the Bible displayed God's power, His glory truly lies in the broken and flawed lives of every single biblical character that are transformed into all the admirable examples of faith. (Sharing with a non-Christian friend who was interested in my testimonies of various miracles in my life, I arrived at the conclusion that, though God has shown many miraculous interventions in my life, the greatest personal miracle I have witnessed is: the way that I myself have been transformed by Him.)

Another illustration: A teacher is glorified by what his student has become, rather than any project that they did together jointly. Worse yet, my original attempt of total self-denial is like the case of a student trying to do as little as possible in the joint project with the teacher, in order to show others the teacher's capability for having done all the work, not realizing that all these projects are ways in which a teacher uses to teach and transform the student.

Having been free from the negative trap of inaction, I can move positively to personal action, seek a personal vision of God's will for my life, and begin to experience the freedom and power of loving Christian service.

Now, when I passionately do God's work, even if seemingly using my own strength and passion, I am able to recognize that it was God who had graced those strength and passion to me. He will get the glory from how I display a passionate life of faith.

Indeed, I sense that all that I am, every dimension that defines my personal realm, are a gift of God. Within this personal realm are my background, my personality, my education and upbringing, my family and friends, my profession, my interests, and my various social spheres of influence. All of these "contexts" are important aspects that make up my "self", and will participate in God's specific design and purpose for my life. So rather than focusing on what coming from me is or is not of God, I should focus on what I will become because of His reality in my life.

2. Personal vision and God's will

Personal vision directly relates to the issue of God's will for our lives, so we will elaborate the issue further.

God's general and specific will

There is God's general will for all believers, which Pastor King used to call "Wisdom Living", that we are called to obey. They are the graceful truths revealed through the bible for all believers to follow.

However, most Christians want to skip this "training" stage, and just want to know God's specific will for the individual. This tendency is likely due to the mis-assumption that once we are in an exact linear path that God assigns, then we can just hit cruise and auto-pilot for our journey, and avoid worrying about failure, risk, fear, and uncertainty, since God would surely guarantee success for the path He assigns.

In fact, the lives of missionaries, martyrs, pastors, and servants of God throughout history speak otherwise. God's specific calling usually comes after one has sufficient training in obeying His general will, since His calling likely demands going all out on a limb for God, and face situations with far greater risks and uncertainty than one ever experienced, with no signs of success in sight, but only faith to carry one through. Only by hindsight could one see God's grace as the sole reason for the journey's success.

What is personal vision?

In essence, Personal Vision is our personal answer to God's general and specific will for our lives.

Given that God's will, whether general to all believers or specific only to you as a servant of God, is likely directions that are still general in form, roles for you to play without specific instructions, and still require an action plan that you need to develop in the context of your own God-given situations, using all your God-given abilities, whether natural talents or spiritual gifts in both the development and the execution of the action plan.

In this article then, I use the term Personal Vision as our own conception, implementation and realization of this specific role, as well as the ways in which we search and determine such a role before it is made clear to us.

In this sense, Personal Vision would include the specific ways that we seriously plan to obey God's general will in our own context, the methods we devotedly adopt to seek God's specific will in our lives, and the strategy and tactics that we adopt to implement such specific callings. For example, the Macedonian vision was God's calling to Apostle Paul, yet how he actually carried out his mission depended much on his own contexts, and definitely not with a step-by-step instruction from God, even though he has continual communion with God.

Normally in our Christian living, we focus on tactical implementations, such as the practice of bible reading, in-depth studies, daily prayer or quiet-times, frequent fellowship, etc. Seldom are we challenged to plan strategically, as if doing so would invade God's sovereignty. When we study the lives of exemplary Christians, we see that they indeed live with strong long-range purpose and vision. I have yet to see examples of great obedience without clear personal vision.

Essential for passionate living

This topic of developing personal vision is part of my series on integrating faith into everyday living. Echoing the NHF vision, of reflecting the invisible glory of God to the visible world, we had discussed in past articles the importance of exhibiting sacrificial love to people around us, including our family, relatives, friends, co-workers, neighbors, the needy, and the rejected in our society. Our faith in action speaks louder than words to an otherwise apathetic world, whether in evangelism, missions or outreach.

Often we feel that our live of faith is stagnant, not necessarily because we are uncommitted, but because we don't know exactly what to do proactively. We do not have directions, and we don't know how to ask for directions. We are lacking personal vision to either. Without vision the people perish.

As Tim Keller wrote in the study of "household evangelism", we cannot lead "un-distinctive" lives. Indeed our Christian lives are on display for others to see, especially to those around us and within our spheres of influence. Our last article discussed the need for a relentless and totally abandoned life of "desiring God", to demonstrate as living proof that God is far more precious than anything else worth pursuing. People will only take notice of our message when we start to act as if God is the only thing worth living for, otherwise we would be suspected of being no more than the spiritual equivalent of used car salesman.

This passionate living for God is only possible when we have a clear personal vision, of how our personal role in God's kingdom fit in to the context of the greater community of faithful believers. Only with clear focus can we undertake what Rick Warren calls a "purpose-driven life", and truly live to reflect the glory of God.

3. Suggested steps

In this section we brainstorm and explore some ways for you to discover, focus, or clarify your personal vision. They are only my personal opinions, definitely not definitive, and serve only as simple suggestions that anyone else can easily thought of as well. For every question, ask them to yourself in the context of every personal dimension imaginable, from the immediate scale of direct inter-personal impact, to the grandest scale of social justice.

Listen to God

Most fundamentally, listen to God. Through bible reading and study, devotional prayer, and meditation on His word, learn to hear His voice and know His ways, so that you will be able to discern what is from God. All the other ways would assume that you have this as the basic foundation.

Listen to yourself

Love the God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So let us listen separately to these components of your "self".

Listen to your heart

Who and what do you really care about or have concern for? What would bring you joy? What stories or testimonies draw your immediate attention? Who do you like to spend time with, to work with, to serve?

Listen to your soul

What inspires you? What are you passionate about? What excites you, in the sense of being in mission impossible for God?

Listen to your strength

What are your talents, abilities, and spiritual gifts? What are you good at, or comes easily to you? What do you like to do that gives a sense of accomplishment?

Listen to your mind

What do you like to think about? What issues or questions concerns you? What is your method or approach to solving problems? What would you like to learn? What do you see as pressing needs?

Note

These areas are not necessarily exclusive. You may be particularly sensitive to certain issues or situations than other people. Because of that, you may be naturally good at tasks in those particular areas. That may develop into hobbies. And because you enjoy yourself in those areas, you may acquire the taste for them, and find great satisfaction in doing things in those areas. You then find it constantly on your mind, etc.

Anyway, the commonality of all four areas will help clarify or focus that which may be your calling or vision. While we can elaborate on each area, adding in more specific questions, we will leave you the opportunity to fill in many more.

Listen to others

Often we may not be the best judges of ourselves. Listening to others who knows our spiritual life and growth will help tremendously in this respect. They may be close spiritual friends to whom you confide, spiritual leaders and mentors who are accountable for your growth, and whoever has a stake in your spiritual growth. Sometimes, as in the case of C.S. Lewis' book "Screwtape Letters", your vision can be clarified by viewing the situation in reverse, through asking what your spiritual Enemy would definitely NOT want you to become.

Consider asking others all the questions concerning ourselves in the previous section, but as they see most fitting for our context, for they may have a clearer perspective on our undeveloped potentials, or the wisdom to sense areas of needs, better than we do

Personal evaluation

Consider the various questions listed above through the lens of time will give us a perspective on emerging patterns of our personal growth, and perhaps a sense of direction and destiny.

Time also allow us to evaluate and understand ourselves, and to offer a reality check of our personal determination or lack thereof. While I illustrate for the case of personal spiritual growth, you can apply the analysis to other issues as well.

Suppose you want to form a vision for your personal spiritual growth. You can ask yourself: How would you like things to look in 2, 5, and 10 years from now? You will need to answer with a sense of proper expectation, namely not to delude yourself with totally ludicrous improbabilities.

An alternative way of phrasing this question is: what legacy would you like to leave the world or those around you, if you were to leave this world in the next N years? Will your present course of action contribute to that goal?

For those who normally avoid making claims to the future, deeming them futile because life is too unpredictable, let us look back 2, 5, and 10 years, and comparing to the present, ask yourself in what areas and how exactly has your faith changed and grew since then.

Has the change been a result of random events, or of specific actions that you have taken? Perhaps this will illustrate that specific visions and determinations we had back then are one of few things that can stand the test of time, and reassure us of the importance of personal vision that we would adopt for the present.

Along similar lines, ask: how have you spent your time (or lack thereof) in the past N years, specifically for your spiritual vision you had back then, or for its search? Perhaps this will show how personal efforts as measured by time will contribute to your spiritual growth in general.

To know yourself in spiritual courage, ask further: What other courses of actions could you have taken back then (in related to spiritual growth)? Of the actions that you wish you had taken (maybe because they would have led to more desirable outcome) but didn't, what were your reasons for not taking them? In fact, what chances could you have taken for God back then, which would lead to deeper spiritual growth?

Given how your past had behaved, are you satisfied with the present path of spiritual growth? Are there reasons for expecting your faith to change and grow in the next N years, if all else remain similar? What vision should you adopt now? What actions should you take now? What daring steps could you step out in faith for God, so that N years from now, you would not regret for having missed such opportunities?

The realization that we don't have all the time in the world, the acknowledgement of limited time and opportunities, and the possible lack of meaningful legacy for our lives, will force us to re-consider what is significant vs. what is urgent for our present.

Sensitivity

This really belongs to "listen to yourself", but expanded here as an illustration of how we can turn our negatives into positives. I will use first-person tense to facilitate the reading, and not to indicate that I myself have achieved the ability to do so.

For various reasons, (and perhaps just for being human), I find myself frequently being critical or judgmental, at people or at situations. Instead of pouring out my views and offend people prematurely, I try to (mentally) take note of all the things that I am complaining, and in what ways they are intolerable to me, and possibly, how I would want people or things to change or improve. Then, after sufficient time elapsed, when I can look at the situation calmly, I would try to see my annoyance as an indicator of my particular and personal sensitivity to such situations or environments.

In the context of searching for personal vision, this negative reaction can be turned into positive suggestion: I am sensitive enough to see the problem, and thus likely to visualize a solution or improvement. The fact that I complained about this rather than some other issues suggests that I care about this more, or that its changes would appeal to me more. No matter what, the event would indicate to me that this would be one area that I can consider helping out.

In general, rather than just complaining, and having or waiting for others to handle situations that annoys us, why not allow ourselves, in a loving spirit, to make these changes, and allow the world around us to become a better place. What better way to ensure something to get done right than to do it ourselves.

As a simple application of this strategy in the context of building a community of faith, ask yourself: what is the one thing (or ways of doing ministry) that you would most wish that a particular community leader, especially the pastor, should change or improve to make the church a better place? Whether you answer "greet newcomers", "hold welcome dinners", "visit families", "conduct seminars", "teach Sunday school", ... our exercise above would suggest that those specific areas may very well be your role of best serving the community.

Explore

What you have discovered through the above list of exercises, and the present state of who you are, are not final by any means. Most likely you still don't know what you like or what you will become good at, or even what your gifts are, without trying many things out, or attempt to learn something new. In this sense, personal exploration to find out the hidden potential within yourself is probably the most important process.

A few exploratory habits that come to mind are:

• Say yes to opportunities that you would not otherwise try.

• Say no to many things that are there for the sake of doing, or lead only to stagnation, and has no value to any sense of personal growth.

• Try three new things that may widen your horizon of understanding, e.g. see a new culture, learn new history, visit new city, spend time with new people, interact with new way of thinking, take new classes, hang out with new group of people, read new genre of literature, watch a new movies, etc ...

• Drop three activities that you mindlessly do, either to give others a chance (create opportunity for others,) or to save time to enable your own new exploration.

• Shameless plug for the NHF Resource Ministry: consider using its resources, as books and various media are the cheapest and most time-efficient ways for you to explore unknown worlds, personalities, testimonies, etc.

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4. Environments for development

There is no prescribed method for the personal discovery of God's specific will. All that the previous brainstorming exercises would have illustrated is that the process for determination of one's role in serving God depends much on the individual and context.

However, one worthwhile agenda is to cultivate the right kind of environment that would enhance the process of discovery and the continued nurturing of personal visions, and encourage all the different forms of personal inquiry to be made with ease and reassurance. Such environment is needed for both the personal and community scale, in which our personal exploration and discovery is encouraged, testing out of our ideas protected, so as to enhance the process for us to identify the specific areas in which we can passionately serve God and serve our neighbors.

The personal environment one should foster is one that schedules one's life to leave sufficient time for personal interaction and meditation with God, for introspection and reflection, and sufficient resources for personal exploration.

The community scale environment, which a care group, or the entire church, should strife to become, would provide individuals with the assurance to seek out different friends, mentors or leaders for advice regarding one's vision, encourage personal undertakings that will broaden one's horizon, whether by missions or outreach, various resources, and most importantly, a common vision to support individual visions.

In doing so, not only do the individual members benefit in their search for personal vision, but also making each person shine brightly as an essential component of the community of faith.

5. Final thoughts

As Pastor Edward reminds us many times, instead of being assigned a position within the church, or simply because there is a need and you happened to be available, that doesn't mean it is your calling for that position. He encourages us to find those roles in the church for which we are passionate about. (This doesn't necessarily meant to preclude us from filling in as temporary assistants when needs arise.)

Another important clarification: while I have used words like "action" and "doing" many times in the article, this is by no means trying to say that faith and Christianity is judged by works. However, we are using the concept of "actions" to serve the same role that "works" served as a reflection of "faith" in the Epistle of James.

Instead of asking "what should I do", we start with "who I am", and act because of "who I am": Find your true self, rooted in the personal identity in Christ, identifying your passion and forming your personal vision, and you will experience the freedom to live and act because you have been transformed for being God's child. From the integrated self flows passionate actions.

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