Multiple issues will challenge our vision

Like you, I gave rapt attention to the “Imagine Kelowna” report presented to Kelowna City Council this week.

The scope of consultation was impressive with 4,000 residents providing input over a span of 18 months. Also like you, I suspect, I was most deeply impacted by the thoughts of Grade 11 student Frida Morales, who urged us to be more conscious of the future consequences of our actions than by temporary solutions yielding immediate profits. Her presentation was a clear case of wisdom beyond her years.

Billed as a strategic vision designed to underscore philosophy and values the process raised the ultimate question: “What kind of community do we want to be?”

Listening to the news coverage of the presentation, it was all I could do to not audibly applaud. I applaud the wisdom of leaders who realize that we must be intentional about our future.

To quote one of my mentors: “No one ever drifts to a higher level.”

Higher levels are only ever achieved through intentional choices. I also applaud the depth of the values under consideration. To declare values that will move us toward being a connected community, smarter, socially and environmentally conscious and to be collaborative, unquestionably puts us on a high path.

I was somewhat surprised that the four undergirding principles or values did not mention two concerns which I hear almost daily, that we be a healthier and a safer community but no single list can include everything and I suspect those two were assumed as givens.

The outstanding question of course is whether we have the will to make the hard choices this vision will require. As young Ms. Morales said so eloquently, those choices might interfere with immediate profits.

More specifically, they might interfere with some of our current practices. As our mayor pointed out recently, it’s conflictive to declare a concern about the environment when at the very same time the number one concern for many is how to get more roads to accommodate more traffic.

Multiple issues will challenge our vision, many which have no easy answers. For instance, what impact on Kelowna will the legalization of marijuana have? Will low boundary shelters for the homeless, where drug use is permitted, lead to a better downtown core or worse?

Will we choose to co-exist with organized crime or do we have the will to make Kelowna a very unwelcome city for those engaged in that way of life? The list of challenges is long and complex.

The conclusion of the Imagine Kelowna discussion is simple: it is of utmost importance to dream, think and plan for the future.

And, there will always be hurdles along the way.

Actually, planning a city has direct correlation to planning one’s life. Several authors of the scriptures stress the importance of “pressing on toward the goal to which we have been called,” or “running the race marked out for us.”

There is a high vision of what we might become. The same authors are also realistic in pointing out that running that race will require addressing obstacles and distractions which can easily trip us up or get us off course.

I applaud our city leaders for imagining our future. I just as enthusiastically applaud every individual who imagines their own God-given potential and strenuously gives themselves to accomplish it. Who knows where we might all be in 10 years?

Tim Schroeder is pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Kelowna. This column appears weekly in Okanagan Weekend.