Encountering a Failure of Vision

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From Eugene Peterson’s Under the Unpredictable Plant in his discussion on Quarreling with God and a Stunted Imagination: “Jonah is standing in a place large and seething with creativity, gospel creativity. Nineveh, against all probabilities, has been saved. Jonah saw none of it because of his stunted imagination. He had just failed at a religious job. He had predicted the destruction of Nineveh, and it didn’t happen. His competence as a prophet was now in question, and he blamed God. He had no awareness that his spiritual vocation had just expanded exponentially.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peterson’s discussion of Jonah’s anger at God for not completing the vision that was cast to his heart raises some interesting questions about Pastoral leadership and the surprising actions of God that leave visions incomplete and seeming failures. I don’t think any could question Jonah’s clear discernment of the prophecy of Nineveh’s destruction, the vision that was given to him by God himself. The leadership course has been set, the vision communicated, and all has been done under the direct guidance of God. Yet, Nineveh stands in repentance and God’s seemingly unavoidable course of action has been abated. Again, I am not sure any could argue that Jonah’s anger is without solid evidence of a personal sense of abandonment and failure because of God’s actions. It is interesting then to note the parallels between Jonah’s predicament and the similar circumstances we may face when our own visions for our church may be left incomplete because of the new creative imagination God births in our midst. Assuming, much the same as is the case with Jonah, that the initial vision is cast out of a clear sense of God’s direction, communicated clearly and with authority, and then is interpreted as failure as the will of the Lord leads in a different direction…what will be our response? Legitimate anger is a possibility. Or is there something deeper to be learned by broken and incomplete visions? Peterson seems to imply the lesson to be learned is the creative imagination of the gospel, the “unstinted imagination”. What say you?