In the Bible study Shann and I are part of, this week’s task is to spend time with a 10 year vision of what God is doing in your life and what He is asking of you. My dad would love this so much. He believed, like Ignatius, that God speaks to us in our imagination. God wills us to do good work, His work in the world. Dad liked to spend time praying and dreaming in the liminal space between what is and what could be. This is how NBC Camps was born. He imagined a place for students to learn about forgiveness, encouragement, hope in Christ, and new life. He knew this needed to intersect where passion lies for most young athletes. In a time when basketball becomes god—all imagination, time, energy spent pursuing the dream, Dad dreamed of a place to speak about the things of the heart. What a better place to talk about the human heart  and God’s invitation of indwelling than to people pursuing an endeavor with all their hearts.

As I begin the imagination process asking God to inspire in me the passion and vision needed for His calling, I open the scripture and read about Peter. He is on the water fishing. He has caught nothing. He is skilled and understands his profession. Jesus, a carpenter, tells him to fish again. Peter in obedience casts his nets again though it is clear he doubts.  Instead, he brings forth more fish than the nets can contain. His response is total surrender and realization that he is in the presence of God, he is witness to a miracle.

Jesus isn’t calling Peter to become a successful commercial fisherman. He is changing his entire profession. He is pointing to a heavenly, invisible realm. He is dismantling the preoccupation on occupation, financial stability, excellence as defined by the most, the biggest, the best.

In that moment, Jesus is redirecting Peter to a higher calling and encouraging him to become a fisher of men. Jesus is inviting Peter to His eternal calling.

As I imagine the next 10 years of life, my work, my imagination, my time, and attention, how can this be fully God’s to use as He wills?

As I mediate on the story of Peter, I love that Jesus’ offers something that Peter hasn’t fully imagined in his mind but has longed for in his heart. I trust that as I seek the nexus where my passion and God’s vision for my life meet in the secret places of my heart, Christ will arrive with instructions and prompts to follow.

Dad never fully imagined all that NBC Camps could become, he only imagined a loving response to the needs to saw around him and worked a simple plan to follow through. God left the surprise of the fifty plus future of NBC Camps to His own divine imagination. I trust God will fulfill this in my life and in the lives of my children.

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. To Him be glory in the church and throughout all generations for ever and ever! “ Ephesians 3:20-21

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