Vision and Fantasy I: Grounded in Humility

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
James 4:10

I met with some pastors recently and we were discussing the difference between fantasy and vision. (It was a facilitated discussion; we don’t generally sit around bringing up such formal questions right after “How’s the weather?”) One distinction that arose from the conversation was that vision is grounded in the reality of what could actually be, while fantasy is just about how we would like or prefer things to be.

The conversation reminded me of something Doug Richardson, the founding pastor of LBCF, once said (that a friend also reminded me of this week): he said that humility is simply being honest about what is. If you are honest about what is real—about who you are, about who God is, about creation—you are being humble. Jesus made some amazing claims about Himself (“I am the Son of Man.” “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”), but there was nothing prideful in it because he was simply being honest about what is. So to be humble, we must live in reality.

All vision starts with humility, because both begin with simply addressing the realty of what is and what could be.

Brandon