Vision Simplifies Life #32

When you know where you’re going, it simplifies your life. Many choices become easy for you.

Going back to the example we used at the beginning, knowing where your workplace building is located, it’s easy for you to know which path to take to get there, and which path not to take. On your way to work, the reason it is so easy for you to know which path to take and which path to avoid is because you know exactly where you need to go. Knowing where you’re going makes it easier for you to make decisions.

People who know where they are going with their lives lead a pretty simple life. Let’s look at some examples. If you know that your destination is to become a brain surgeon, it’s easy for you to know that you need to study science, that you need to study chemistry and biology in primary and high school — and then study medicine more intensely in university. And now that you’re a general practitioner, you know you need to focus on studying the human brain.

Also, you know that if you meet someone you’d like to marry, but that person wants you to sleep at home every night, the relationship will be difficult to manage, because you know that as a doctor, there will be times when you have to sleep at the hospital, in order to take care of a patient. Of course, this doesn’t mean that this partner is a bad partner, just that it’s not the right partner for you. Just as the best partner for you may be the worst for someone else.

Even in your diet, you will avoid foods that can have harmful effects on your hands, because you know that to operate on a human brain, you have to be very precise with your hands.

Having a vision of your destination makes all the choices you have to make easier. Many times when I talk to friends and ask them what they plan to do in the next few years, many of them don’t have an answer because they don’t know where they are going, they don’t know their destination. The sad truth is that many of us live from day to day: we are born, then after growing up a little we are sent to mother school — once mother school is over, we move on to primary school. At this stage, we are still young, so we can’t hold it against us. However, after a few years, we enter high school and start making our own choices. What happens is that, we begin to feel the need to know our destination, so that we don’t make decisions that we will regret later. I know a lot of people who discovered their destination quite late in life, and they realized that everything they had chosen to study were bad choices. So they had to start studying things they should have studied a long time ago.

After finishing university, society tells us to get married. By the way, if you get older and you still don’t get married, people start looking at you in a bad way, as if you were strange. So, to avoid being seen as abnormal, we get married, give birth, and then start the same cycle that we went through with our children, asking them to do the same since that’s the norm. In other words, it’s a bit as if, by coming into the world, society had already defined our entire journey, through the process I’ve just explained. The problem is that in all of this, it’s as if it’s not you who choose what you want to do based on the vision you’ve received of your life, but based on what society expects of your life.

When we study the life of Jesus, we notice that he was someone who knew exactly what He came to do here on earth. From the beginning of his life here on earth, he knew that he had to be a teacher, so from age 12, he was already going regularly to the synagogues (1) to study the Scriptures (so he knew what he had to study). In addition, when he began his ministry, he chose 12 disciples (2), because he knew that he would die, and that others would have to continue his work. Moreover, he did not choose his disciples by chance.

(1) After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. All those who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

(2) When the day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve, whom he called apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter; Andrew, his brother; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, son of Alphaeus; Simon, called the Zealot; Jude, son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

When you know where you are going, it is easy for you to even identify the people who can help you get there, so that you don’t spend too much time with those who are just acquaintances

Jesus could also have been a victim of what society wanted to do with him. By the way, for years the Jews had been oppressed by the Romans (3). So they expected God to send them a king who would go and fight the Romans and free them from Roman oppression. So when Jesus came, and with all the miracles He performed, the Jews thought that he was the king they had been waiting for. As a result, they tried many times to get him to do what they expected him to do. For example, one day he entered the city of Jerusalem on a donkey, and they began to worship him as their king, with songs, putting clothes on the ground for him to walk on, etc. But because Jesus knew his destination, it did not change his goals. In fact, he knew his goals so well that at the very beginning of his mission, he sat down with his disciples and communicated to them his end: he told them clearly that he would be killed, but he would rise again (4). In other words, even before beginning the exercise of his mission, he already knew his destination, just as before leaving home each morning, you already know your destination.

(3) If we let him, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our city and our nation.

(4) While they were traveling through Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again. They were deeply saddened.

As you read these lines, you may think that for Jesus it was easy because he was God. He knew that we would say that, and that is why he himself said, “You will do more than me (5). The Bible gives us many examples of people who knew their end early in their lives. Joseph had several dreams that led him to know that his destination was that he would be the savior of his family, that his family would bow down before him (6).

(5) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto the Father;

(6) Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, who hated him even more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I have had. We were binding sheaves in the midst of the field, and behold, my sheaf stood up and stood, and your sheaves surrounded it and worshipped it. And his brethren said unto him, Shall you reign over us? Shall you rule over us? And they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of his words. And he dreamed another dream, and he told it to his brothers. He said, “I had another dream! And behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down before me. He told it to his father and his brothers. His father rebuked him and said, “What does this dream mean that you have had? Shall I, your mother and your brothers come and bow down to you on the ground?

In the same way, David was anointed from a young age, allowing him to know that his destiny was that he would become king of Israel (7). Likewise, Samson, who from the womb was destined to be a great warrior (8).

(7) The LORD said to Samuel, “When will you stop weeping for Saul? I have rejected him, that he should no longer reign over Israel. Fill your horn with oil, and go, and I will send you to Jesse the Beth-lehemite; for I have seen among his sons the man whom I desire to be king…. Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose, and went to Ramah.

(8) An angel of the LORD appeared to the woman, and said to her, “Behold, you are barren, and have no children; you shall conceive, and bear a son. Now take heed, drink neither wine nor strong drink, and eat nothing unclean. For you shall conceive, and bear a son. The razor shall not pass over his head, because this child shall be consecrated to God from his mother’s womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

Let’s look at some more recent examples: when Steve Harvey discovered that his gift (remember, we talked about his gift in the previous stories which is comedy), he quit his job because he realized that his purpose was to make people laugh. At an early age, when his life was a disaster (he had been kicked out of school because he wasn’t smart enough to study), Denzel Washington received a prophecy from an old lady in his neighborhood, who told him that one day he would talk to millions of people, something he does today through his movies and conferences. At age 13, Dr. Myles Munroe received a revelation from God, telling him where his life was headed, and that is exactly how he left us in 2014, doing what he was called to do — peace to his soul. Myself who is writing to you, many of the choices I have to make are easy for me, because I know my end too. Moreover, if I am writing this blog, it is because being an author is part of my end. Discovering your destination really makes your life easier.

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May the Grace of God help us to obey his Law.

Thank you for reading me :-)

Resources

(1) Luke 2: 46–47

(2) Luke 6: 13–16

(3) John 11: 48

(4) Matthew 17:22–23.

(5) John 14: 12

(6) Genesis 37: 5–10

(7) 1 Samuel 16:1, 13

(8) Judges 13: 3–5