Make your vision exciting and be passionate about making it happen. Consider it when you are making decisions in your life. When I think about gorging on junk food I think about this vision and imagine myself overweight with a whole host of chronic diseases that keep me from having salt or sugar at this most special of future events. My mind thinks, I can enjoy this now and forfeit the beauty of the vision or I can make a choice that makes the vision real. If a temptress enters my life, I overcome her wiles with imagining the future anniversary never taking place. My mind is guarded from waste time because each wasted moment makes the vision less likely. I purposefully connect with my children and grandchildren because I want them to fund this event. I learned this by attending a friend’s fiftieth anniversary. My wife and I were sitting at a table visiting with a young man that I did not know. In the course of conversation, it came out that this young man was the son of my friends having the anniversary. I had known the man for over ten years at that point and he never mentioned having a son. My heart broke as at some point in the conversation he mentioned, off handedly, “I am only here because of my mom.” Apparently, something had happened in his relationship with his father that was very hazardous. In that moment I resolved that I would love, give attention to and be generous with my children. Now I don’t do this perfectly. But my resolution comes from the vision. I want them to want to be there at the party of parties.
Every part of the vison is critical to focusing my attention on this amazing story. Now while, time and space prohibit me from sharing that the anniversary vision (see blog post 19) is only the beginning. In the vision I am seventy-five and I have plans beyond that for another twenty-seven years to include my burial. The ultimate vision is simply a target to keep you focused.
Once you have the vision firmly embedded in your heart and mind you need to find some way to capture that dream so that you can meditate upon it daily. I journal a picture of the journey as well as the destination each morning. Imagining life as a quest to climb a mountain, the journalling begins with a mountain. Behind the mountain is my north star. The mountain has a name that has changed from time to time. What stays the same though is that I refuse to climb the mountain without picturing my wife and I walking into that event. I capture that at the top of the mountain by writing fifty plus. Then I don’t want to be there alone with just her so under that I write four plus. I have three biological children and a son-in-law. I want all of them with me on the mountain. I also currently have four grandchildren, so I write again four plus. On the mountain I write the word “arete” to remind me that I want my quest to be covered in moral character. I write Micah 6:8 as my life verse. Then I write my role on the quest currently I am writing “Ring bearer”. On the side of the mountain, I write the character traits that I must develop if I am to make the heroic quest victoriously. I also capture the virtues that I know are the most descriptive of who I am and resolve to live them fully. The journaling first thing in the day focused my day on the long term and ultimately eternal destiny that I have signed up for by taking up the cross.
