2020 Vision

Unlike many in my family, I don't need eye glasses to see well.   For years, when we lived in Canada, every time you went to renew your driver's license you had to get your eyes tested.   The results always came back positive.   20/20 vision is considered normal vision and the benchmark I always reached.   Perhaps you know what I am talking about.   You've been to the doctor and she sits you about 6 meters from an eye chart.  You are asked to read a series of letters on a chart.  The lower you can read on the chart, the better your eyesight.   All of this thanks to Herman Snellen, the Dutch ophthalmologist who developed this measurement system in 1862.

How's your vision?  Not just your eyesight, but how's your vision as a follower of Jesus?  We have just begun a new year and a new decade.  What is your vision for the year ahead, for the 2020's?   Have you like so many people set some goals, some aspirations, some new year's resolutions?  What is your outlook for the future?  For yourself?  Your relationships?  Your church?  The world?  If you have the chance to look back in ten years, what will stand out as key achievements? 

What if we set the standard high?   What if we have a 20/20 vision for the future?  Not some blurry outlook for tomorrow, but a focused plan and a clear vision for 2020 and the decade ahead.  A 20/20 vision or better!  What would that vision be like?  Well here is a vision for the days I ahead that I consider 20/20:

The missionary Paul wrote to one of the churches he planted, the church in Corinth.  To them he wrote:  "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."  (1 Corinthians 2:2)   This was Paul's resolution as he went about his life as a Christian and as a leader.   He kept his life and ministry very plain and simple.  It was all about Jesus.   Jesus first!   And Jesus plus nothing else.  He would tell about Jesus, who he was, and then what he did:  Jesus crucified.

Sometimes as Christians and churches we make life and ministry very complicated.  We add so many things to our agendas.  As churches we have buildings and programs and budgets and staff and meetings and more meetings.   Our Sunday gatherings often mirror our busy lives and we rush away from worship into another week of relentless pursuit.  The pursuit of what?  What is the end game of our quest in life?  As Christians and as churches.   That's the key question, isn't it?  Why do we do what we do?

More importantly, in everything we do is Jesus made visible?   A certain church had a beautiful stained-glass window just behind the pulpit. It depicted Jesus Christ on the cross. One Sunday there was a guest minister who was much smaller than the regular pastor. A little girl listened to the guest for a time, then turned to her mother and asked, "Where is the man who usually stands there so we can't see Jesus?"   The sad reality is the fact that often much what we do as Christians and churches stands in the way of people seeing Jesus clearly. 

Now buildings have value, as do most everything we get busy with as Christians and churches.  But what if we make it our aim in 2020 and into the decade ahead to keep life and ministry very plain and simple.  To make everything we do to be about Jesus and nothing else.  To make sure that nothing we do as Christians and churches blurs that resolve!   To resolve to tell others about Jesus, who he was and is, and what he did and continues to do among us.  

Years ago I preached in a church in Peterborough, Ontario.  As I stood behind the lecturn ready to address the congregation I noticed a message engraved on a brass plaque.  It was a quotation of what some Greeks said to the disciple Philip as recorded in the Bible:  "Sir, we would like to see Jesus." (John 12:21)  This church was giving me a clear message:  they wanted to see Jesus in what I did and what I said.  If that was not my end game, I might as well step down from the pulpit.   In the words of Bob Goff, "For me, it's Jesus plus nothing...." (Love Does)  Is this not why do we what do as Christians and as churches?   We want people to see Jesus.  Through what we say and what we do people come to know Jesus and him crucified.

May this be our resolve as we enter 2020: to let nothing blur people seeing Jesus in what we say and what we do!   As Christians and as churches.  It is all about Jesus and him crucified -- plus nothing else!  In our marriages, as we raise our children in our families, in our recreation, in our life's vocation, in our learning, in everything we do as churches, in our coming and in our going, we make it our aim to let people see Jesus clearly by what we say and what we do.  That is a 20/20 vision!