Discovering God’s Plan
Do you ever feel like it was a journey to get to the journey? It’s like when you are going on vacation and the amount of work involved to simply walk out of your door and then lock the door to say goodbye to your everyday life for a week was so challenging that you questioned if it was worth it? Then, the moment you are sitting in that beach chair listening to the sound of the waves crash against the shore you realized it was worth the sacrifice of making it all happen.
God’s vision is worth your obedience.
God gave us the vision for the Journey Together four years ago. What a wild four years it has been. We’ve experienced growth, heartache, failures, hurt, disappointments and God was with us during it all. In that same breath, we have seen God do the miraculous and take the best care of us every step of the way. There is always a choice to focus on the hardship or to keep our eyes trained on Jesus and learn to trust in Him. You often hear about the value of preparation time and yet that time is often the most challenging. What is God preparing in your heart during this time of trusting in Him? For me – He reminded me just how much He loves me and I decided to receive His love in every area of my life. For our marriage – we’ve grown and change has taken place to grow. Change is not easy, but it’s possible through Christ Jesus and making a choice to live as a doer of His Word.
God has a plan for each of us and He isn’t hiding His plan. Knowing that God has a vision for my life is everything to me. His plan is personal. The discovery behind knowing God’s plan is birthed from knowing who we are in Christ Jesus. I know my Shepherd’s voice because I am spending time with the Lord. When I know that God hasn’t changed His mind about me, I know that I can trust in His plan even if it feels on hold.
We knew that this year was it. But we still had some work to do. We also knew it would take an intentional investment of our time and resources to make it happen. A step of faith, knowing God would help as we made a step forward in His plan.
What did we do? We separated ourselves. Take time to separate yourself to listen. We have four kids, that we love dearly… but we needed space. Joshua rented out a hotel room for a night and we sat down and asked God what does this Vision look like for The Journey Together? We’ve had the name for four years, but we needed the ‘Why’ behind the name. We turned the TV off in the hotel room, attempted to block out the loud conversation happening in the room beside us and we started with prayer. Joshua prayed and then I prayed and we asked God for wisdom and direction in what He had for our lives and in how He wanted to use us to grow His Kingdom. After that, it looked like this: Joshua sat in a chair and I sat on the bed and we began to walk through the process of what a vision is and the mission behind the vision. In this step of faith – God put it all together. Why? Because He is faithful.
Here is our process. Take it. Use it. Apply it. Run with it.
What is a vision?
- A vision statement focuses on tomorrow and what an organization wants to ultimately become.
- A compelling vision of the future sparks motivation, provides direction, and guides you through daily strategy and decision-making.
Schedule time to work on your Vision Script. Setting aside the necessary time is a way of focusing your intention and clarifying what you want to accomplish. Think of yourself as standing in tomorrow—say, three-to-five years from now. Imagine the future you see for you, your marriage, career, family, etc. What do you see? What does it look like?
- Who do I help?
- What’s at stake?
- What problems does it solve?
- What are our hopes and dreams?
- Who and what are we inspiring to change?
Begin articulating sentences that describe your preferred future.
Here is our vision:
Journey Together Vision:
Inspiring people to discover and explore God’s fullness in everyday life.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:19 (NLT)
What is a mission statement?
A mission statement focuses on today and what an organization does to achieve it. Both are vital in directing goals. The vision statement focuses on inspiring and unifying people towards a common goal, while the mission statement outlines the specific actions and purposes of an organization in achieving that goal. Both mission and vision are important for setting direction, aligning efforts, and measuring progress.
A personal mission statement helps you define your values, priorities, and goals, and provides a framework for making decisions and staying focused on what’s most important to you. By having a clear mission, you can make choices that are aligned with your purpose and avoid wasting time and energy on activities that don’t align with your goals. It can also help you stay motivated and overcome challenges, by providing a sense of direction and purpose.
Mission statement questions look like:
- What is our purpose/what do we do?
- Who do we serve?
- How do we serve them?
- What is the desired result?
Once you’ve finished, trim down your thoughts, cutting each paragraph down to one sentence.
Here is our mission:
Journey Together Mission:
We believe passionately in the power of God to change lives through our connection to Him. You lead and I’ll follow.
“A step of faith in God opens the way for Him to help you.“
Our next step –
Head to the beach and begin. Did it have to be the beach? No, but we have great friends that helped us out and it gave us the space to create without distraction. A step of faith in God opens the way for Him to help you. We filmed and recorded 10 podcasts in two days and it was a blast. I want to interject this: You aren’t alone on this journey, so ask for people to lift you up as you move forward. We asked people that we know loves us and loves God to pray for us as we began. We felt that prayer working in just how smooth it all went! We also decided to grow with the vision. That means no nit-picking to the point of killing the enjoyment out of what God is doing. Embrace the growth and learn from it. Don’t beat yourself up or compare yourself to someone else. God is doing a good work in you.
Here we are now, launching out and asking you all to join this journey with us. Saying: God, You lead and I’ll follow.