Visions

Visions are valuable, precious, and rare.  They are the responsibility of leaders.  Inevitably “we” place the responsibility, accountability, and trust for the future in and with the trusted few.  Institutions choose those they trust, often reluctant to change once a decision has been made.  In contrast, individuals implicitly give authority to those in leadership, authenticating their belief in the vision, by acting in ways to make the vision real.  A negative vote is shows through various forms of resistance, reluctance, and questioning.
 
As integral as visions are to the ways in which we live, many walk as if they have no idea where the next destination will be.  Living for the moment, riding the edges of their emotions, and acting impulsively is the heart of their plan.  This is not linked to “being in the moment”, rather this is the way of coming into the present.  Getting the “most” of out of life has taken on several more variations – from the indulgence of New York, to the quiet self-centered Californian, to variations on going through the motions in between. 
 
I find myself longing for a vision that I share with others.  It isn’t that I want everyone to be the same; quite the opposite.  I love diversity and difference.  I enjoy the process of discovery.  I appreciate seeing and learning from new perspectives.  I also find we have far more in common than we realize.  Each longs for a sense of peace and purpose.  Each thirsts for the assurance of community.  Each hurts when others are hurting.  In short, compassion, mercy, and love are at the heart of the fabric which binds us together.
 
It is in this spirit that I long from the time when “God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.” (Isaiah 4.5, 6)  It is in this vision when our dreams will find their reality.