Proverbs 29:18 says that where there is no revelation/vision, the people cast off constraints and do what is right in their own eyes.
For the centurion, the inverse is also true. Clarity of vision seems to define boundaries and narrow the path for people who steward a calling/work defined by a compelling vision.
This is easy to see in other areas of life. Have a compelling vision for fitness? The constraints of diet and exercise will become narrower. Have a compelling vision for getting out of debt? The constraints about spending and saving will become boundaries that lead to life for you.
Things at work are often different. Sure, as the employee there are ways to get ahead and things to work for, but generally the workplace is a setting where the constraints are often fueled less by vision than authority, more like traffic laws we strive to stretch or bend according to our appetites because we don't have a vision that's compelling enough to appreciate and embrace the constraints imposed upon us.
For centurion employers, though, the vision and constraints of leading the company and casting vision for the people working within it are hugely compelling and powerful. They're also very often among the most intimate and rigorous connections the business leader has with God.
When vision articulates constraints for most of us, we accept it and keep moving. But maybe there's something to be said for seeing how vision and constraint feed and strengthen one another, and then being explicit about how we accept and pay the price for the adventures to which we're invited.
