The Vision…I think

So I wanted to update everyone a bit on where I am and what I’m doing.

Things had been pretty low key this summer as I was back in the States working on my visa for Spain and helping back at the Adventures in Missions offices in Georgia. I had an incredible time and it was probably harder than it had ever been before to leave the States. It is interesting when you start making decisions that have nothing to do between right and wrong just great and great. That’s kinda what it felt like deciding to push into my vision back in Spain and throughout Europe instead of some other options.

Us on a site visit to the farm where the main tent is going to be

I just got back to London this week after some well needed time of rest in Spain for the last two weeks. For those of you who don’t know, I have been privileged to be on the leadership team for David’s Tent 2013. The same festival I went to last summer when I first got to England and had no idea what I was doing. The best way to describe David’s Tent is like a Christian Woodstock. It’s held on an old estate in the countryside, people camp out, have bond fires, there is non stop music for 3 days…all without the marijuana and body paint (I hope). My job is to network with the musicians who will be taking sets to play non stop and help create a community and family to be a part of. There are over 100 musicians coming from all over the world and it’s gonna be awesome!

I have been thinking recently of how I probably have more vision for my life than I ever have before. I’m making more connections, investing in more places, and making a bigger impact than I thought I would be two years ago when I first started dreaming about this stuff. I used to think that if I had all of that in place than I was doing pretty good, but recently God has been revealing a bit more about how he views my vision.

Recently God has been teaching me more about love. I don’t remember specifically asking him to, but it’s been really nice…well at least the part about loving humanity…that’s been easy, but when he starts getting more personal it becomes a bit more difficult. About a week before coming to Spain God began showing me how much it breaks his heart that so many people base their relationship with him on some type of end goal whether it be heaven and hell or even a ministry objective in a city. God started revealing to me how unloving it is to have any of my vision as a foundation for why I do things or for why I would love God, even though a huge part of my vision is for others to come in contact with God’s love.

Not exactly what I saw happening a week before I made one of the biggest moves of my life because of the vision I had for Spain!

I’m definitely not saying having vision is bad, but the last 3 years I’ve been in a community that provided a lot of freedom for dreaming and vision building to the extent where there is a huge risk of vision becoming identity. I think the scariest thing about this is that elevating your vision to something that you live for is quite a popular thing to do in and out of the church. No one really has a problem with it and you wouldn’t have any shortage of support or encouragement along the way.

Because of this, there has been quite a shift in my thinking. When someone asks me what I’m doing in Spain or Europe my first thought is, “Well I’m here to be with my Father.” While I don’t always say that, it’s the way I’m starting to think about things. Initially I had two fears about this way of thinking. The first was that I would personally lose vision and become useless, or irrelevant to the world in my pursuit of relationship, and the second was that people would think I wasn’t willing to work hard where I was.

It’s funny because, firstly, taking a step back from vision has actually enabled me to dream bigger with God and has shown me how much we claim to be carrying out “God’s vision” when it is really just a formula that we created to work out something God told us to do a year or two ago, but it might not be what he is still doing. Secondly, I’ve come to the realization that going somewhere just “to be with my Father” would not only cause me to work hard for what he says to do, but probably give my life for it.

After all, if we really believe that we have God’s vision in the first place, do we not also believe that he wants his vision more than we do?

I wouldn’t be as confident in saying this if I hadn’t seen it happen in my own life. Back during month 8 on my original World Race I remember God giving me the vision of organizing a grassroots music festival that would move across the farms and cities of Europe. I hadn’t been to Europe and I definitely didn’t know anyone there, but I set it on the shelf and trusted that if he wanted it to happen it would. I can’t say I tried hard to be involved in anything like that, it really just fell on my lap, but I can say that last summer I went to the UK “to be with my Father” without a lot of vision and now I’m organizing a grassroots music festival on a farm in South England. It’s definitely not a coincidence, and it’s crazy to think that following too hard after God’s vision could mean missing what he is actually doing if your main objective isn’t to be with him. It’s hit me how easy it must be to be a good servant of God but a bad son.

I’m excited because one of the themes this summer for David’s Tent is sons and daughters returning to their Father as we join as a family to worship him. We are less than 2 weeks away from the event and are working hard to keep in step with the movement of the Spirit while resting in our Father God (not an easy reality to live in!) I look forward to updating you on everything and please let me know if you want more info on anything!

Please join me in prayer for some things….

That relationships on our leadership would be protected

That we would be willing to sacrifice to keep in step with the Spirit

That I would have discernment and wisdom in my decision making

That the Father’s heart would be felt in every aspect of the festival

And Above all that God receive the worship that’s due!

 

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