I’ve had a nasty staph infection in my left eye and last week my entire eye was swollen shut. At one point, it was so painful I just laid on the sofa with my eye closed while taking pain relievers, antibiotics and using hot compresses to try to get some relief.

This week it is nearly healed and I can see clearly once again, I am so grateful for my restored vision.

It gave me lots of time to reflect on the importance of my vision.

When my vision wasn’t clear last week, I couldn’t see where I was going. I had a hard time with depth perception when I went down the stairs but the worst part was I felt overwhelmed, confused and frustrated not to mention it was painful and ugly.

It was a great picture of life. Most of us live with a huge infection over the big vision for our lives.

We once had dreams as a kid or young adult but we’ve allowed the cares of the world to cloud our vision or worse we can’t even see the visions and dreams we once had for our life.

God is a huge dreamer and what He dreamed He created and He continues to create.  The awesome part of being human is that we are made in God’s image and we have the ability to dream and to create our lives.

In fact, God asks us to live out our vision. Scripture says in Proverbs 29 where there is no vision the people perish and Habakkuk 2 says to record the vision because it points towards a goal. Goals lead to the creation of your vision. Revelation 1 says to write down the things you have seen. When God gives us a dream or vision for our lives we are to write it down.

I love the story of Joseph because he didn’t allow his horrific circumstances to deter him from his dream. It took many years for the dream Joseph had at 17 to come to life but he never gave up on the vision God gave him, no matter what.

The vision for your life starts in your mind, and contrary to what the enemy would like you to believe you have complete control over your mind and what you do with it matters.

The vision I have for my life is to create fun, adventure and abundance everywhere I go no matter how I am feeling. I believe that the world needs more Jesus people living full out, 100% of their best selves every single day. Imagine the world if every single believer stepped into what Dallas Willard calls Life Without Lack living out Psalm 23. Living a life without lack would be an answer to Matthew 6:10 His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.

Imagine who in your life would be impacted if you lived your 100% best each and every day of your life, how would things change for you?

If your vision for your life is impaired, obstructed, infected by the worries and cares of this life or worse lacking (imagine your face without eyes) you can change that. You have the power to make a difference in this life. You can make an impact.

You can get out of your own way and chase your dreams and play full out. Your past does not have to create our future if Joseph allowed all of his trauma to determine his future his entire family would have perished in the famine. You are not different you have the ability to not allow your circumstances to determine your vision and instead let your dreams determine your vision.