What you see is what you get.

Vision our ability to picture potential reality.  In many ways, this is a very abstract mental process.  However, I think there are things we can do to cultivate vision.  As I think about men and women of great vision, I realize that they cultivated vision through the mental habits they formed. 

What you see is what you get.

In other words, be careful about what you put in front of your face.  I don't mean this in the figurative sense either.  I mean literally focus your eyes on what you want to achieve or acquire. 

During my freshman year of college, I didn't have anything else to decorate my walls with but a cut-up old calendar.  It happened to be a calendar of hot rod cars.  Dodge Vipers, Ford Mustangs, Chevy Corvettes, etc.  Now I have never been a car guy.  But with those cars on the wall, I found myself thinking about cars a lot more.  I wanted to get a flashy car that had tons of power and could turn heads.  What you see is what you get. 

During my sophomore year of college, I printed out scripture verses and put them on the walls.  I also made them into computer backgrounds and screen savers.  Outside of very specific moments where God touched my heart to bring change into my life, I have never experienced such continual growth and peace in my life, or such a sustained intimacy with God.  What you see is what you get.

Scripture talks about this idea over and over again (2 Corinthians 4:18, Philippians 3:17, Psalm 16:8, Proverbs 17:24, and below...in addition to many other verses). 

No wonder that many of the great revivalists spent so much time reading scripture that they couldn't help but envision a world that was more in line with the Truth of God.

I'd like to leave you with two verses.

Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. -- John 5:19

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!  -- Hebrews 12:1-3 (The Message)

So,...what do you see?