Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he.”
Proverbs 29: 18 (KJV)
Here we are entering another week through yet another Monday together. And I hope that where you are the sunshine is streaming through into your day, whether or not any clouds may have temporarily rolled in over the locale where you live.
As we sit here, I have a few questions for us to think about together. Here’s the first one—what do you expect the day to be like? And the second, looking forward a bit—what do you expect the upcoming week to be like?
What are your expectations for your life for this day and for the rest of the week? What expectations do you have for members of your family for today and the rest of the week—for your bride or husband? What expectations do you have for your children? Or for your grandchildren or Godchildren or friends?
Maybe you’re a teacher or a coach—what expectations do you have for those you teach or coach each day? What expectations do those who teach or coach with you have for their students or players?
Let me ask it a different way—as you begin today, what do you imagine for your life today and tomorrow and on into the future? What do you picture that your day today will be like? Do you picture a day full of sunshine, laughter, smiles and meaningful, productive moments making a difference in the world and the lives of those around you? Or do you picture something else?
If someone handed you an artist’s palette of paints in one hand, a brush in the other, stood you before an easel containing a blank canvas, and told you to paint on that canvas what you imagine your week will be like—what color would you start with? What would you paint on that canvas?
What vision do have for your life? What do you envision your life will be like for the rest of our day today together, and for tomorrow and for the rest of the week? What do you want it to be like? Why can’t they be the same? What will your life stand for? How high do you set the expectations for your life? Are they high enough?
Here’s something else to think about while you’re wrestling with some of that. What do you think God’s expectations are for your life today, for tomorrow and on into the future? Do you think He has set the expectations for your life to be higher or lower than you set them? What do you think God is able to do with your life and mine—in the midst of whatever and wherever we find ourselves?
God doesn’t impress me as a God of low expectations. Reading through His Word and the stories and promises memorialized there—we find imagination, vision, high expectations, fallings and failings coupled with forgiveness and grace, power, love, courage, caring, miracles, sunshine, resurrection, eternal life, a new Jerusalem, trumpets, disciples and a growing army of followers, healing, children, and Christ at the right hand of God as our friend, advocate, wonderful counselor, might God, Prince of Peace—and Savior and Lord.
I wonder what we might begin to expect for today—and I wonder whether our expectations might begin to become a bit higher, and our imaginations start to take wings—if we aligned our sights and set our vision for everyday as God would set them for us? It’s then we may begin to become all He created us to be. He just doesn’t impress me as a God of low expectations.
I was reminded the other day of what Muhammad Ali said some time ago, and love the encouragement we can take from it for all of our days:
“If man can take moldy bread and make penicillin out of it,
Just think what a loving God can make out of you.”
So now—what do you expect, what do imagine, what do you envision for your day?
Need help? Give it to the God of high expectations.
In His Name—Scott
P.s. By the way, I think that first color on your canvas might be sunshine Golden Yellow!
Copyright 2013. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
