Look up

Prolonged difficulty and struggle has a strange kind of gravity about it: it seems to pull your chin to the floor. In that position it becomes quite near impossible to laugh or enjoy anything, and it makes it difficult to remember all that you have to be grateful for. It shrinks your horizon of possibilities and the size of your world to the sphere of your boots, eyes cast down, your head hanging in hopelessness.

I've been staring at my feet for a while when I finally felt God say: look up. I know I've heard that before, so I went to look up Abraham's story in Genesis 13.

When God told Abraham to leave his home Lot went with him. Both men had quite substantial wealth (large flocks, etc.) and the land could not sustain them living together anymore. The situation became rather tense and the herdsmen starting fighting among each other. Abraham, in pursuit of peace, suggested they rather part ways and gave Lot first choice of the land. Lot chose the prime spots and left Abraham with the second best leftovers. I don't know about you, but I might have felt a little done in if I was in Abraham's shoes. I get the feeling that
Abraham, after trying to honor God and do the right thing, got stuck with something that didn't seem like much of anything at all. He must have felt disheartened.

Look up!

But when the dust of Lot's leaving had settled, the Lord spoke with Abraham and said, Look up from the place where you are (Genesis 13:14). Sometimes all it takes is one moment. If you could just look up and in that moment catch a glimpse of hope. In that moment God can touch your heart and open your eyes to the wonder of all that He wants you to see. You don't want to miss a moment like that.

Just like Abraham God wants you to look beyond where you are right now. Maybe you feel like you've been left behind in the dust with no sign of life, nor any promise of rain and you wonder if the drought will ever be over. Take heart: it may be where you are but it is not where God intends for you to stay. He's prepared a way for you to move forward.

Look up.

Look up in your hopelessness so He can show you hope. Look up in your pain so He can show you His healing power. Look up in your anger so He can show you how to find freedom and peace. Look up in your confusion so He can show you the way. Look up in your sadness and despair so He can show you His comfort, and in your weakness so He can show you His strength.

Wherever the place you find yourself in today, I encourage you to look up. God's got something new to show you.

Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:18 MSG)

So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ - that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. (Colossiens 3:1,2 MSG)

As you look up from the place where you are today, may your eyes behold the wonder of what God wants you to see. May He fill your mouth with laughter and your heart with a new song.