Vision: a function of the heart

“Sight is a function of the eyes while vision is a function of the heart”

I read this statement recently and have been plagued with it, mulling it over in my mind for a couple of days now. How often we consider vision, and by vision I mean the direction or long-term objectives or direction of our lives, or our families or even the church we are in, and yet we use our eyes to try to look and see what will occur, we rarely use our hearts. We try to look with our eyes to see what will happen in the future. We look at the state of the current economy through our eyes and see the state of our 401k or dwindling stocks and shares. We look at the decisions being made by the current administration with our eyes and wonder what the future holds. We look at our lives with our eyes and wonder how we can fit in things that others deem to be important – like gym membership, a second job, completing college or even church stuff activities like tithing or joining a small group. When we view these things with our eyes we can see only so much. When we look with our hearts and look with vision then we can often see things very differently. Indeed, on those rare occasions when we actually use our hearts to try to discern direction and vision we can face a battery of questions on the validity or ‘do-ability’ of what we have conceived. When was the last time you went on a ‘flyer’ for Jesus and had a bunch of people questioning your wisdom or asking who was going to pay for it, or seriously doubting your sanity or even your calling to lead?

When we use our eyes to set our vision we will only ever reach as far as we can see – unfortunately many of us are spiritually myopic. When we use our ears to try to smell a flower we are unsuccessful, the same goes when we set our vision through organs intended for sight and not those designed for vision. Proverbs 29:18 tells us that those without vision will perish – quite simply those who live without direction, without revelation, without purpose will die.

Last week in our Young Adults group we were reminded of 1 Kings 18:41-45. IN this passage the prophet Elijah has just defeated the prophets of Baal in a “My God’s bigger than your God” contest and he falls to his knees to pray. He asks his servant to look out towards the sea and report what he sees. The report is that he sees nothing the first 6 times, but on the 7th he sees a cloud that was so far away it was the size of a man’s hand. Even his servant saw it and wasn’t that disturbed by it. That is because the servant saw with his eyes, Elijah saw with his heart. His eyes told him the size and dimensions of the cloud – the size of a man’s fist, but his heart told him of the potential of the cloud – a torrential rainstorm that would soon arrive. His sight said one thing, his heart (and vision) said another. What clouds do you see that are the size of a man’s hand right now? What does your heart tell you they may become?

So what about those who follow their hearts? What about those passionate people who seem to be dreaming more often than they are thinking rationally? What about those weird visionary type people? What about them? Find them, befriend them, love them, listen to their heart, help them teach you how to listen to your heart, include them in your discussions because without them you will not see very far.

Walk by faith, not by sight.