Vision: JFK and the Moon

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

I'm sure you've heard that quote before - it's the famous one made by Neil Armstrong as he stepped out of the lunar module onto the surface of the Moon.  Monday was the 40th anniversary of that historic occasion.

It was before my time, and I don't think I truly appreciated the sequence of events until recently.

You see, almost seven years before, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech at Rice University in which he casted a vision for that lunar landing.  In his remarks, he said, "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" (emphasis mine).

When JFK made that statement, the means didn't exist to make this happen.  In fact, to the ordinary listener, it probably sounded like an outrageous claim and a gamble, as far as speeches go.  Seven years later, it happened though.  (almost six years after his own death)

Did the President know something that the rest of us didn't?  Was he making an outrageous claim and betting/hoping that it would come true?

Even more importantly, without his dedication to the space program and his insistence that this was possible, would we have strived as hard for this accomplishment as we did?  Would we have followed through or come up short?  Would we have tried at all?

I've been talking a lot about vision lately.  JFK's vision is a great example of what it means to have vision and to cast that vision.  The "what" of vision always preceeds the "how."  Nobody knew how to make this happen at the time.  In fact, the majority of attempts to crash-land a rocket into the moon prior to that were an utter failure.

This is a pretty good analogy for what our vision should be in as the Church.  God desires for us to literally "shoot the moon."  His plans for us are far beyond our own competency and we have no way of answering when someone asks us how we'll do it.  The point of vision is to allow it to mature in you and allow God to mature you for the vision.  As we pray and prepare, doors open, God's plan unfolds.  When it's done, everyone knows that it has to be God's work - because it wasn't ours and we weren't just "lucky."

Nehemiah, long ago, rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem because he had a vision.  When it was complete, this is what Nehemiah had to say, "When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence beccause they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God" (Nehemiah 6:16).

Do you have a vision?  Chances are, if you can answer "how" you'll accomplish it, you don't have a vision, just a good idea or a goal.  Goals are good and necessary in life - their a mark of our ambition.  Vision, though, is a mark of God's ambition and our faithfulness.  Find it.  Chase it.