Friday, July 30^th, ‘10 (program #20100730)

PERIPHERAL VISION

Let’s talk today about peripheral vision. In Genesis 13:14 the Lord commanded Abram, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward”. Faith is not tunnel vision, looking through the tight radius of can’t and won’t and couldn’t and shouldn’t. Instead, it has latitude, catching glimmers of possibility from every sector. The Lord urged, “Lift up your eyes and look”. Mere awareness must become vivid perception. Oswald Chambers claimed, “Eyes that look are common but eyes that see are rare”. Abraham had to see it to be it. Notice, “Look from the place where you are…” All success commences “from where you are”, not from where you will be after you get your master’s degree or make your first million. You don’t need an address change, an attitude change will do.

I call this peripheral vision because faith works in whatever direction you can swivel the head. First, look inside because that is where your passion dwells. What is your heart telling you? What do you feel down in the “feeler”? Second, look above because you won’t get far without divine assistance. Partner with omnipotence, because no matter how talented you may be, somewhere, sometime, you’ll help. Third, look behind, at heritage, education and life experiences that can help unlock my future. Who you are today is a composite of events and experiences from “behind”. Foresight is insight based on hindsight.

Fourth, look around. Obvious need dictates mission. Walk slowly through the crowd. Observe their burdens. Find a hurt and heal it. Fifth, look beneath because we are only as strong as our foundation. Is our faith solid? Is the business or ministry founded on biblical principles? Then sixth, look beside. Who is traveling alongside? Are the right people getting credit and praise? Your company will only be as strong as its people. In most cases that begins with a spouse. Moses had a Joshua beside him. Paul had Timothy. Elijah, Elisha. There is no success without a successor, so look beside, who is in training to fill your seat?

I don’t know what your optometrist has to say about your peripheral vision, but I know what the Bible says. “Where there is no vision, people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). People perish, plans perish, personhood perishes. Has the get up and go got up and went? Then you need an eye wash. Helen Keller commented, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision”. Where you are right now may seem hopeless, the end of the road, but friend, you’re not at the end of the road, you’re at the bend of the road. The answer may lie in the periphery. Look in, look up, look back, look around, look beneath, look beside, but above all, look ahead because that is where the rest of your life is. “You can’t move into your future till your future moves into you.”