Vision 1

             Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (Proverbs 29:18 KJV)

It’s unusual for me to use a passage in the King James Version, but I think this is the version in which I learned this verse. At least, I learned it in a version that used the word perish, and that’s part of the focus I feel the need to explore in this Battle Bible verse.

Before we explore the passage, a note about the reasons for it being the verse for today. The first reason is that I’m coming to the end of my time in Florida. In a way, this is the last 2.5 weeks of December for me. I’m preparing for a new year. It doesn’t help that a month after I get home is my birthday, so I have two “new years” beginning a month apart. It’s time to set goals and figure out what in the world I’m supposed to do with my life. The second reason is that we’ve completed a contentious election season in the park, and there is a sense that we need to heal and come together as a park again.

I woke early this morning and started praying about this. Someone mentioned the need for healing in the park, and my answer was that we need to be praying for the park, and coming together to pray for the park. I haven’t been doing as well in that for the past few years. And as with the park, so with my neighborhood and my church in Erie.

But it’s easy to say we need to be praying for our own needs, and praying for our brethren, our families, our neighbors, our communities, etc., prayer that focuses on the vision that God has for them is more effective than prayer that focuses on our visions. We must seek Him first. We must seek His will, His vision. And that’s where part of my struggle begins because I have listened too long to the lie that my praying for something is the #1 best way to absolutely ensure that it doesn’t happen. My wanting it means I’m being selfish, and selfishness is bad.

Tomorrow, we’ll look some more at this passage.