Virginia Falls, Glacier Park

This summer I led 7 women on a vision quest retreat to Glacier Park. Prior to going I decided to google “vision quest”  just to see what this meant to others.  Much of what I saw resonated deep in my understanding but I was surprised by the abundance of marketing geared to “personal” vision statements for success, personal financial growth, dreaming about all the things you want to acquire in life and visualizing receiving them (everything from a car to a big house).   Vision is a word that seems to catch on quickly….we all want it,  but it makes me a bit nervous when it becomes “all about me.”   In the Hebrew Text of the Bible and the Gospels vision it is about the ability to see how to feed and clothe everyone in a community; vision responds to the questions of how to foster faith that one day we will live in a world where justice flows down the mountain like a overflowing river.

I can never remember a time in my life when “vision” wasn’t a shared vocabulary word of the communities where I lived in Central Montana.   It was a “church word” and it was a word talked about in my home and school.   I may not have understood it fully when I was little but I knew it was about the most important thing the world needed:  “Without a vision, my people will perish” is what the minister read and preached about in Isaiah.  As I grew in my understanding it seemed that God’s wisdom  taught that vision and breath are  synonymous to living well in a community.

Growing up in rural communities in Montana “vision” could literally make a difference between life and death in a small town.  Vision had to do with helping the people in town whose barn or house burned down. Vision had to do with projects at school that taxes didn’t pay for (like girls’ basketball and senior trips).   Vision was about remodeling churches, building community centers for the elderly to gather or raising money for someone’s family with a terminally ill child.  At church it had to do with angels, dreams, and praying for our neighbors and world….then creating a vision to do something about all of the things we prayed and talked about.   Vision was about taking care of widows left behind, bringing food to the sick, sending money to help children learn to read in parts of our world without access to public eduation.

Growing up vision was linked to common sense.  You didn’t have to buy books to learn about it; it was something that was learned by observing the wise people around us who always found something to give when they could see the need.   Vision always had to do with community, reaching out to do things that one single person could never do alone.   This is the vision that breathes life into our world.  It is basic to spiritual formation and faith.

Advertisement