Every leadership book ever written talks about the need for vision – it’s nothing I haven’t heard before. I’m going through a devotional book about Leadership at the moment (aptly named Leadership by John C Maxwell), and earlier this week I read about that very need for vision.

Ever have that problem where something is so often repeated that is doesn’t even sink in anymore? I had a case of it bad!

But I started thinking about vision. If vision is so important for success, what is the vision for my time here at Training College? Obviously, to be trained into a Salvation Army Officer!

But what would ‘fullness’ look like during my time here? What would it look like to suck the marrow out of training? To get the absolute most out of this time?

That question has occupied my thoughts and prayers over the past week. I want to catch the vision. I want a glimpse of what could be. What would it look like?

Here’s some things that I have come up with – they are personal to me, but I share them in the hope that you, too, might find them helpful.

Here’s the vision:

I want to go deeper with God. I want to live up to what I’ve already attained in terms of intimacy with God, spiritual disciplines, study of the Word, prayer, worship, freedom, abiding, gifting, passion, fire, holiness, encouragement, sacrifice, selflessness, humility.

I want my placements to be times of meaningful and significant advance in the Salvation war. I want to exemplify the spirit of Salvationism. I want to get people saved and into discipling relationships. I want to be a blessing to my sessionmates, to the cadets in the sessions above and below mine, and to the staff and Officers at the College. I want to encounter God in the College community.

I want to start assignments more than a week before they’re due. I want to be organized and efficient. I want to be a good, faithful and disciplined steward of my time. I want to study hard. I want to read more around my subjects – not just for assignments, but to learn how to be the best Officer I can be.

That’s my vision for fullness during training. I’m not going to lie to you, for me that’s going to take application, determination and hard work. And it relies solely on God’s grace. Apart from Him I can do nothing.

So what about you? I believe God has fullness for you, whatever season you are in. Fellow Cadets, Candidates, Officers, Soldiers and anyone else reading this: how can you maximise the impact of this part of your life for God and His Kingdom? Certainly worth spending some time in prayer over.

I’ll leave you with this video – a presentation of a poem by Peter Greig called The Vision.

(The author stands to the left in the picture above.)