Around 1960 Phillip Knight quit his job and put his future on a vision for new kind of athletic shoe company. With $1000 in start-up capital he began buying shoes from Japan and selling them out of the trunk of his car.
A couple of years later he took on a business partner, his former college coach, who made design modifications to the shoes. The idea eventually took off.
Knight’s company, NIKE, is now worth billions; it all started with an idea put to work.
In 1730 a church in Sussex, England posted this sign:
A vision without a task is but a dream; a task without a vision is drudgery; a vision and a task is the hope of the world.
The truth behind these words is profound. When my work becomes drudgery it is inevitably because I have lost sight of the vision God has given me for the ministry—I have forgotten the eternal significance of my life’s work.
Personally, I can’t imagine anything more dull than selling shoes out of the back of one’s car—but Knight’s own vision transformed the drudgery of this task into an adventure that led to astounding success.
Maybe your job seems like drudgery sometimes. What job doesn’t? Don’t lose sight of the vision that God has given you. Focus not on what you’re doing as much as what you’re accomplishing.
Paul said, Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)