Death of a vision

John 12:24-28 (NLV)

Jesus said to them, “The hour is near for the Son of Man to be taken to heaven to receive great honor.  For sure, I tell you, unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it will only be a seed. If it dies, it will give much grain. Anyone who loves his life will lose it. Anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it forever.  If anyone wants to serve Me, he must follow Me. So where I am, the one who wants to serve Me will be there also. If anyone serves Me, My Father will honor him  “Now My soul is troubled. Should I say, ‘Father, save Me from this time of trouble and pain’? No, this is why I came to this time. Father, honor Your name!”

Have you ever heard of the term “Death of a Vision”?  I heard it from Bill Gothard during his week-long conference called “Basic Youth Conflicts”.  We all have visions, dreams, or goals that die.  We make plans and even start implementing those plans, but the project fizzles and dies.  This happens both in our spiritual lives and our secular lives.  How many times in my life have I had an exciting vision about a new ministry at my church or a new project at work and I worked hard to turn my vision into reality and, in some cases, even made good progress, but something happened to sour the ministry or project and it eventually died.  I believe that God is involved and acts through my secular life as much as He is involved and active in my spiritual life.  Through the teaching of Bill Gothard I believe that if a vision is not God’s will or not yet in His timing, the vision will eventually die even though that vision was an honorable one.  Yet, sometimes, even though we think that the vision is dead, it is not.  God eventually brings it back to life, but at a later time and in a different way.   Why He does this?  He is God and you and I are not.  He allows visions/plans/goals to die for various reasons--- He desires to test the quality of your faith, He wants you to rely on Him and His strength more than you are now (e.g. you need to become more humble), there is someone else who needs to be involved in the fulfillment of the vision who is not available yet, and/or He has a better vision/plan for you.  

One application of Jesus’ teachings in this passage explains the death of a vision.  He uses the example of a seed.  Until the seed dies and is buried in the ground, it remains a seed and never produces anything.  But, if the seed falls to the ground and dies, it produces something far greater than it’s starting point.  So it is with your life.  Your life must die to self first (what Jesus meant by “hates his life in this world”) before it can be reborn as a life that serves Christ and others.  If you love yourself and your life apart from Christ’s involvement in it, you will eventually lose it (physical death as happens to all of us) without having eternal life (life with Christ forever). 

The New Life Version Bible subtitles these verses as “The Law of Life”.  The law of life is the law of the seed.  Life comes from death; that is, eternal life comes from the death of Christ who died for our sins and the choice people make to die to selfishness and be reborn, like the seed, to a life that honors Christ.   God is glorified through the harvest of the seed of eternal life in the life of every person who chooses to die to self and be reborn to a life of following and honoring Jesus Christ. 

We all have visions at one time or another and we all experience death to some of those visions.  The real question is how you react/respond to the death of a vision?  How have your responded to the call of God to die to visions for your life that did not involve Christ to a rebirth of your life with Christ at the center of it?  Can you see the vision of God for your life?