Are You Reflecting or Visioning?

Say goodbye to 2025—thank you.

 

What a seismic year of cultural, political, and spiritual shifts.

Regardless, I find myself at the end of each year feeling a tension between reflection and visioning.

That is, thinking about the past year: What was challenging? Where did I see God move? When did I miss something important? What brought a moment of playfulness? Of resolution?

And then I wonder about the future: What changes do I want? Where do I see my heart leaning? How can I be a better human? How might I create a better future for those around me?

Do I look backward or forward? Or both?

I think the tension is actually good. How much effort or time do I put into reflection versus visioning? Should one outweigh the other?

At the risk of sounding like I’m hedging, I think it’s situational. And the tension is healthy.

For instance, I love the tension of contradiction in Scripture. A simple example is found in Proverbs: “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes” (Proverbs 26:4-5).

Obviously, the writer is saying it’s situational. It requires discernment regarding timing, relational dynamics, and circumstances. Different contexts require different responses.

Likewise with reflection versus visioning. Again, Scripture plays it both ways:

“I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.” 

PSALM 77:11

And…

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”  ISAIAH 43:18

Context is everything.

The psalmist Asaph is talking about an emotionally troubled time—so much so that even when he tried meditating contemplatively, he felt overwhelmed and dizzy, in such pain that he was unable to speak. He was so unable to see a positive future that he needed to remember what God had done for Israel in the past; specifically, how He supernaturally rescued them.

Isaiah, meanwhile, is writing during the Babylonian exile. The people needed a sense of hope for the future. God is letting them know that He is going to do something unique, something remarkable and ingeniously fresh—perhaps even beyond what He’s done in their miraculous past.

Both writers were experiencing turbulence, five hundred years apart. Both needed a shot of hope. But the way God dealt with them was very different. In Asaph’s case, it was about what he needed to do to understand what God could do. In other words, which set of instructions will the listener be able to receive?

It’s the “receptor context” issue. What is the state of their heart?

Interestingly, when I get in touch with that—the state of my heart—it helps define which one I need to lean into: backward or forward. And, of course, it’s never either/or—that’s where the tension lies. More likely, it will be a bit of both, with one informing the other, but either reflection or visioning will take the lead.

Happy New Year, friends. I pray yours is filled with hope and glory.

Dave Workman | The Elemental Group

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