Seeing: Vision Changes Everything
“When the old way stops fitting, vision shows you the doorway.”
What does “vision” mean in a faith context?
Vision is seeing your life through God’s lens—reframing disruption as a doorway, not a dead end—so you can realign your rhythms, take the next faithful step, and move with His timing instead of fear.
Table of Contents
Why Vision Matters (and why resistance keeps you stuck)
A Country Girl, a Stick Shift, and a Life Lesson
Doorways: My Cancer Story & Shifting to Neutral
Teaching & Insight
Practical Vision Check (Weekly Audit)
Scripture Anchor
Real-Life Connections
Practical Steps for This Week
Reflection Question
Call to Action
Why Vision Matters
Hi fam, if you’re new to SHIFT, hit pause and catch the Welcome + Episode 1 for a solid foundation. You’ll get more out of this journey.
The first step in embracing change is learning how to shift and being honest about the ways resistance may be holding you back from your destiny. This season I’m walking through SHIFT as an acronym—one letter, one focus each week. Today is the S: Seeing. Because vision changes everything.
A Country Girl, a Stick Shift, and a Life Lesson
I’m a country girl at heart. While most girls dreamed of big houses, I dreamed of a cozy cabin. And while many wanted something fancy, my favorite ride was a Toyota Tundra named Emma Jean (pray for her—she’s retired now).
But my first car? A 1977 Honda Civic with a manual transmission. If you’ve driven stick, you already know: it’s a whole situation. With a clutch pedal on the left, brake in the middle, and gas on the right, every start is a conversation between timing and touch.
Sixteen-year-old me was in the health department parking lot across from our house, grinding gears, crying tears, and bargaining with God. My parents ran a used car lot; they could have given me an automatic. But my mama insisted on the stick. I didn’t know it then, but she wasn’t just teaching me to drive; she was teaching me the art of embracing change.
Here’s the thing about a stick shift: you have to learn how and when to shift. Miss the moment, and you strain the engine. Push too soon or too late, and you stall. You learn to see the signs, the speedometer’s rise, the sound of the engine, the feel of the ride.
Life is the same way. From our perspective, a situation can look like loss, delay, or “I can’t catch a break.” But through God’s lens, what looks like disruption may be a doorway. What feels like a closed door might actually be protection or a reroute to a better road.
You were praying for “enough.” God may be preparing more than enough, but your vision has to expand before your capacity can.
Doorways: Cancer & Shifting to Neutral
On February 3, 2025, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I didn’t see it coming. With my family history, I prayed it wouldn’t be part of my story, and I kept my mammograms up to date. But after a “shift-filled” end to 2024, my husband and I left our home church after 20 years to plant a new one, and I stepped away from the nonprofit I’d founded. I missed my annual mammogram. I never miss them. Until I did.
I could’ve treated cancer like a wrecking ball. I didn’t bounce up praising God for a “door.” I went numb. I slipped into caretaker mode, calling family, steadying everyone else. Then I drove to a prayer garden and did what I call shifting to neutral, my posture for realignment. I cried. I said the unpretty prayers. I asked God for space to release the fear and the fury, then put on my big-girl pants and fight. And in the quiet, I sensed Him: I’m here. If you need to cry again, I’ll be here then too.
Soon after, I heard a message from a leader who shared how God used a health crisis to realign him: “You don’t know how to rest. You keep pushing like I need you. I don’t. I choose you.” That word found me.
I’m a visionary. I can sprint ahead like I’m doing God a favor. But again, He reminded me: lead from neutral if you want to shift higher. For me, cancer became pruning, a rhythm reset, and restoration. Not a detour, an alignment. A double mastectomy and additional surgeries later, I’m cancer-free and better equipped to go higher. And I’m grateful: what used to take months to realign now takes hours. That’s spiritual growth, not the absence of pain, but the presence of surrender. Neutral means I’m looking through spiritual lenses again.
What about you? What are you facing that looks like a wall, but could become a doorway if you shift to neutral and let God lead?
Teaching & Insight
Vision reframes reality. Two people can stand in the same storm; one sees disaster, the other sees direction.
Sight vs. Vision. Sight is what your eyes pick up. Vision is what your spirit perceives.
Missed moments drain you. When peace leaves, grace lifts, or holy restlessness rises, pay attention.
Right timing matters. God’s pace is as important as God’s promise. He knows exactly when it’s time to move.
Practical Vision Check
Just like I watched the gauges in that old Honda, we need a weekly vision audit:
Zoom Out: “God, what might You be making possible through this?”
Name the Signal: Where did peace leave? Where did fresh curiosity show up? Write it down.
Rewrite the Headline: From “It’s all falling apart” → “God is rearranging things for alignment.”
Next Faithful Step: Small, clear, and scheduled—call, apply, have the conversation.
Hear this: Stop trying to fix the problem and fix your eyes on Jesus. He knows the timing. He knows the speed. He knows when it’s time to shift.
Scripture Anchor
Ephesians 1:18 — Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
It’s like putting on the right prescription; what was blurry becomes clear. Paul is praying we stop stumbling in spiritual nearsightedness and start seeing from heaven’s perspective.
Real-Life Connections
Career: The role that fit last season now feels tight. Disruption may be your cue to reskill, reposition, or step into something bigger.
Family: Keeping the peace is now costing you peace. Vision invites boundaries that teach, not rescue.
Faith: Busyness replaced intimacy. Vision says: shift to neutral (Word, worship, stillness).
Health: Your dashboard lights are blinking. Vision chooses sustainable rhythms, rest, nourishment, and movement.
Community: Your circle shaped you then; your calling shapes your circle now. Curate voices that pull you higher.
Your Being: White-knuckling old pain? Vision whispers, loosen your grip and make room for joy.
Practical Steps for This Week
Write the Vision (1 page): What do you believe God is preparing you for in this season? Be specific.
Schedule Neutral: 10 minutes a day—Scripture, silence, short prayer.
One Aligned Action (24 hours): Put one step on your calendar today.
Reflection Question
What do you see right now? Are you focused on what you’ve lost, or are you looking at what God is preparing for you? He wants more than enough for you.
Call to action
Click here to listen to Episode 2
Stay Ready, Shift Higher. This is the SHIFT Podcast.
