By Dr. John Ed Mathison
Executive Director
John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries
People of vision are people who accomplish extraordinary things. The Bible says, “Without a vision the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18) If our vision for 2015 is not so big that only God could help us accomplish it, it is not worth the effort if we can do it alone. A God-sized vision gives a new dimension to living!
But let me warn you. When you have a big vision people will start telling you why you can’t accomplish it. If you set a goal that is beyond the normal, the naysayers will begin to pull you down. I’m told that if you catch a bucket of crabs, and one crab tries to climb out, the other crabs will pull him back down. That exercise is not limited to crabs.
I have become a fan of the Seattle Seahawks because the backup quarterback is Tarvaris Jackson from Montgomery. He has an incredible teammate named Derrick Coleman. He is the first legally deaf offensive player in the National Football League.
Derrick has known that he was deaf since he was about three-years-old. He wore hearing aids and would read lips. Children would kid him because of the hearing aids. He said, “For people that wore glasses, they would call them four eyes – they called me four ears.”
People told him he couldn’t be a football player. He did well in junior high school and high school, then UCLA, then went to the Seattle Seahawks. Everybody kept telling him he would never make it. He had a big vision, but naysayers told him it was impossible.
How did Derrick respond – he said, “I have been deaf since I was three, so I didn’t listen to them.”
Let me give you a term for 2015 – Selective Deafness. When people tell you you can’t do something, just practice Selective Deafness – don’t listen to them. Whenever you share a great dream or goal or vision, there will be a lot of folks who will begin to tell you the reasons why you can’t accomplish it. Practice Selective Deafness!
When Moses was leading two million Israelites towards the Promised Land, he encountered the Red Sea. There was no bridge and no way around it. It was an impossible situation. The Israelites knew that the Egyptians were right behind them and would kill them.
The naysayers talked about how much better off they were as slaves in Egypt, and they started forming the “back to Egypt committee.” But Moses didn’t listen to them. He had Selective Deafness to their voices and perfect hearing for the voice of God. God had planned a miracle for them. He opened the waters and they kept going forward!
The opportunities for 2015 are huge. Practice Selective Deafness when people start the negative comments. Derrick Coleman has an advantage – he is legally deaf. My prayer for 2015 is that God will help make us deaf to the things we don’t need to hear, which will help us listen better to His words for us.
Practice Selective Deafness!
John Ed’s blog posts appear each Thursday in For His Glory.
Contact: JAM Executive Suite 4,4131 Carmichael Road, Montgomery, AL 36106 Phone: 334-270-2149 Email:info@johnedmathison.org
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