Hello, 2022. Nice to meet you? … I think?

It’s two weeks into 2022, and the taste of this new year is still a mystery. Half my mind feels frozen in 2020. While the other half wants to surge ahead to a future date. I don’t think I’m the only one either. The world seems to be approaching 2022 with apprehension, caution, and distrust. A popular meme states that 2022 sounds like “2020 too” and implies we’re in for another rocky year.

I know these memes are in good fun – and they made me giggle and snicker – but they also made me sad in the knowledge that most people expect 2022 to be, well, not a great year. Too many people are going into 2022 with hopes of simply surviving instead of thriving.

Even resolutions are down this year:

Not everyone makes New Year’s resolutions, regardless of the year, but most hopeful/visionary people tend to make them.

Of these hopeful people, too few have plans of improving their lives OTHER than health/exercise in 2022. According to a CBS poll, only 10% of resolutioners desire to “enjoy life more.”

Why?? Why has hope plummeted to staggering lows? Why have people conformed to the mundane and substandard?

WHY HAVE PEOPLE STOPPED TRYING?!?!

I imagine that last sentence echoing in a vast room. The walls line with slumped people, sitting like abandoned dolls with blindfolds over their eyes. The center of the room fills with a mountain of wrapped gifts, each more beautiful than the next. Secrets are held in each precious package. But the vast room stretches for miles, and the expanse lengthens in between this mountain of gifts and each person. People are tired, asleep, or bruised. Too many have tried and failed to cross the expanse. Some have simply resigned to not try. While others give up halfway there, stop mere inches from the target, or get there but forget to open the gifts they hold. All because they haven’t taken their blindfolds off; they don’t realize how close they are to their gifts.

It’s too easy to miss what’s right in front of us because we can’t see past our current situation. To resign. To lower our expectations. To lean against the wall – or sit on the couch/bed/desk – and let the crazy world go up in flames. To say “at least this world is only temporary, I’m just going to bide my time as I wait for heaven and/or Jesus to return.” We wait for those gifts to be handed to us, or learn to live without them at all.

When did the world stop having vision? Please tell me you’re not one of these people, fair reader. I know you’re not the norm. YOU have a vision. You have SO MANY amazing, incredible, wonderful, life-altering, and world-changing visions!! You do. You really, truly do.

A vision is “the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom.” We all have it. ESPECIALLY you. “The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper.” – Proverbs 19:8

Through this wisdom, God has gifted us the ability to imagine even the unseen future.

“So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day. We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison, because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

This unseen realm isn’t just existing after we die, or after Jesus returns to bring us to Heaven. He says our inner being is “renewed every single day,” thus the unseen realm is present EVERY SINGLE DAY.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1

Every single day, we have the ability to act in faith. We have the ability to “focus our attention on what is unseen.” This includes the future, visions God gives us, praying in the Spirit, etc. Each of us has a mountain of gifts. Beautiful. God-given. And meant to be opened now on this Earth. They’re for eternity, but eternity doesn’t simply exist in Heaven alone. Eternity is eternal afterall.

I grew up hearing that life on this Earth is “the waiting room.” I’d listen to whole sermons dedicated to this “vision” of convincing the congregation we’re simply waiting for the real event: Heaven. “Just be a good Christian, don’t sin, store your treasures in Heaven, and don’t get attached to this Earth.” While these statements are indeed rooted in scripture, the idea has been distorted. So much so that many of us have forgotten to actually live. And live ABUNDANTLY. The Bible does indeed say to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” However, this is referring to material things, not our day-to-day actions. Because the Bible also says “I (Jesus) came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” That doesn’t sound like God wants us twiddling our thumbs in a waiting room.

Patience might be hard, but sitting is easy. Too easy. It’s far easier to sit in our current circumstances than risk following a dream/vision into the unknown. (Cue Frozen 2 song Into the unknooooooooowwwwwwwwwn…) I find myself making excuses why I shouldn’t do something I don’t have all the answers for. I might fail. I might be wrong. I don’t want to offend. I don’t want to rock the boat. I’m not going to risk my mental health.

Visions are hard when you can’t see. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? But there is one who ALWAYS sees. Come on, you all know the answer to that one: Jesus. Jeremiah 29:11 is pretty clear on that point, right?

So, knowing all of this, why do we still hesitate? Why do we still find ourselves lacking hope? Lacking the ambition to write down our visions for the future? Why have we stopped trying?

Short answer: after 2 years of hurts, canceled plans, and deferred hope, our souls feel sick. It’s easier to halt the visions to protect ourselves. To nip our hope in the bud before it’s cut off.

How can we change this?

We change this by first healing our sick souls. We can’t have vision without healthy eyesight. How do we heal our sight? Well, it’s not through a shot. Jesus healed a blind man with His words…through faith…

“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. – Mark 10:52

It’s truly as simple as that.

“The Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.” – Psalm 146:8

Through God, we have the assurance that our vision will no longer be blind. No more blindfolds. We don’t have to fear our hope being deferred, because we don’t live by the rules of this world. We live eternally in the unseen realm. The realm where God’s rules trump the world’s sick rules.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” – Isaiah 43:2 (i.e. no matter what happens in the world, you won’t be consumed/overwhelmed by it!)

With God, we can have a true vision. Seeing through spiritual eyes. All we have to do is ask for HIS vision. HIS sight. He gave each of us visions of the future, we just need our blindfolds off so we can see them.

I encourage each of you to take the time to take out a pen and paper. Write down the visions of your heart. If you don’t know them, ask God to show them to you. But the important thing is to write them down. So you can see them and strive toward them every single day. Discover these visions by asking what God would want. What steps can change our current world? What gifts/talents has God given you that you can use to His glory? How can you serve others? How can you give? And…what do you want?

Close your eyes, and truly see.

I’m praying for each of you. May God give you the desires of your heart, and a vision to make it happen!