Vision

Jack was a skilled factory worker, and he had been for years. Although the job helped pay the bills, he found that it was a drudgery to go to work. After lasting out over two decades at the company, he was made redundant in a spate of cut-backs at the factory. He needed to find a new job, but he didn’t want to return to the kind of life he was living before. As he thought about the kind of role he’d really like, he realised that he wanted to work with the mentally handicapped. So he started to do some volunteer work to see how he would cope in that sort of environment. Though the work was challenging, he loved it. A couple of months later he applied for a job working with some mentally handicapped children in a day care centre. Jack had landed his dream job! He is energised and passionate about his job, and he is loved and appreciated by the people he works with. Jack is a new man.

 The images carved into the side of Mount Rushmore in America are a tribute to several people that shaped their nation: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Those who visit the mountain are powerfully reminded of the values and contributions that each of these men made to their nation.

I feel sorry for Samson, one of the judges mentioned in the Old Testament. He was a great man, a hero. But when we think about him, or if we were to ask someone about him, what immediately comes to mind when we hear his name? His story is of a few individual events, some positive, a few sad ones. No long term goal achieved, no followers left, no new land gained.

Life is seldom straightforward. Many have started out on a journey to discover and fulfil a vision, but somehow become disoriented by life’s twists and turns. Many have got to the stage where they look back along the journey that they’ve travelled and feel that they’ve missed out on God’s plan for them. If you’ve ever reached that stage in your life, then you’re in good company.

I used to love boxes as a kid. A box could be whatever you wanted. If it was big enough it could be spaceship or a castle. If I could fit inside then it was a race car or a boat. If it fit on my head it was a helmet. To me, a box wasn’t simply cardboard or plastic, but a new adventure waiting to happen.

Then, somewhere along the way, the box simply became a box. It was what held groceries, or fruit, or paper. It lost its mystery and became a trash can or a lowly container. I started to notice how dirty and flimsy cardboard could be. I threw out boxes that held presents and gave no thought to what they could be with a little imagination.

The box has gotten a poor rap lately when it comes to the world of paradigms and perception. A paradigm can be is the assumptions, concepts, practices or values that constitutes a way of viewing reality for a community. Or more simply, a paradigm is the assumed conceptual and practical view of reality. We all have our own paradigms in life. We all think, act and feel in certain ways because of how we perceive the world through our own experiences and knowledge. We all have a box, and our box, is the foundation and framework by which we have chosen to live our lives.