If I had guessed the date, I would have been in the ballpark, maybe right slap on the money. I remember them well because my daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1985. She loved Lunchables, and occasionally, I would splurge and buy them for her. I say splurge because, one, we were pretty poor. And two, because they were such a frivolous item.
Did I say frivolous? Yes I did! Who in the world would be too lazy to put cheese and ham and crackers in Ziploc baggies? A lazy, frivolous, heathen! Heck, now you can go the grocery store and find anything up to and including pre-chopped onions. But back then? Unheard of. And I would venture to say, most folks back then would have scoffed at the idea of all the prepackaged stuff we have now. And called the very idea frivolous and lazy.
Well, there it is. I would have absolutely bet money that Lunchables would not survive; a trend that will pass in and right back out, and people will get back to making their own lunches. Ha! I've got a refrigerator full of them at this very moment. They were the beginning of a prepackaged era.
So. Do I have a point in telling you this painful story of my complete lack of vision in the convenience food arena? Why, yes, as a matter of fact I do.
I'm not someone who always has the vision to "see" things. Know what I mean? Applying it to the spiritual/church world, I'm not generally the person who has the vision to see the need for change before it happens, ideas before they catch on. Sometimes I do - we all have a certain amount of vision. Our own little niche of vision. But in general, I'm often as surprised when things happen as I am surprised to be still eating Lunchables 22 years later.
Consider the Israelites, they finally have in sight what they've been stumbling around in the desert chasing after for 40 years - the Promised Land. And there's the Jordan River, swollen, at flood stage, standing between them and the Promised Land. An impossible obstacle. To get to the land that God has promised, they've got to cross it. It's starting to look pretty good on this side of the river. Would you have the vision to cross it? The courage?
Here's what I know. I know that when I walk closely with God, He points me in the direction of people who have vision, who catch His vision. And believing God, I follow the guy the Lord shows me who has the vision to say, "I'm going for it. I'm crossing this river." Even when crossing the Jordan River looks totally impossible and makes absolutely no sense, I follow that guy because he's following the Lord. And when I get to the other side of the Jordan, like the Israelites, I'm darn sure glad I crossed.
Keep people with vision in your sights. Then be strong and courageous enough to follow.
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