The Sacred Unlearning: Finding the Visionary in the Professional

It’s a familiar rhythm for many of us: we read the books, we attend the seminars, and we fill our minds with the sophisticated ideas required to do our work with excellence. We prepare because we care. We study because the weight of our calling—especially for those of us in ministry and leadership—demands a solid foundation.

But recently, I’ve been sitting with a powerful insight from bell hooks that challenges how we view all that preparation. She writes:

"Artists like yourself, and other folks who’ve gone to school and been trained, also have those moments where all that training falls away and you’re at that visionary moment where you see it and can make it happen."

When the Training Falls Away

There is a specific kind of bravery required to let our training "fall away." We often use our education and our notes as a safety net, fearing that if we let go of the "scholarly" or the "proven," we will have nothing left to say.

Yet, hooks suggests that the visionary moment—the moment where real transformation happens—only occurs when we move beyond our conscious thoughts. In ministry, we might call this the movement of the Spirit. In art, it’s the flow state. In leadership, it’s the "magical encounter" where a solution appears that we didn’t specifically plan for, yet it is exactly what was needed.

The Mystery of the "Magical Space"

To be a visionary is to trust that the "sophisticated ideas" we’ve put into our heads have settled deep enough to become part of our intuition. When we sit down to write, to speak, or to create, we aren't just reciting a syllabus; we are entering a space where our preparation meets a higher inspiration.

It is a reminder that while our training is necessary, it is not the destination. Our training is the scaffolding, but the vision is the cathedral.

A Question for the Path

As you move through your week, I invite you to notice the moments where you feel most "transported."

• Where in your life or work are you holding too tightly to your "schooling"? * What would happen if you allowed that training to fall away for a moment, trusting that the visionary inside you already knows the way?

  
  

Let’s be people who do the work to be prepared, but who have the courage to be surprised by what appears on the page.