It’s that time of day. I lace up my walking shoes as my dog runs to the back door hardly able to contain his excitement for his daily time on the other side of the backyard fence.
I grab the red leash, a grocery bag for his disposals, sunglasses and depending on the time of year, a coat, scarf and gloves. Unless it’s pouring rain, we’re walking through our neighborhood.
After many , many days of this habit, I realized that most of the time I’m walking, I’m looking down. Why is that? Am I afraid I’m going to step on something sharp or gushy? So I won’t trip over my dog? Or is it something else?
As much as our daily walk is a habit, me looking at the ground is a habit. And I think it’s been a habit for me to look down when it comes to my spiritual walk.
I was reading from the book Living Life Undaunted by Christine Caine that a friend gave me. These words caught my attention:
“We need to lift our heads and look forward in the direction in which we want to go. God has a promise for our future that is much greater than where we are right now. God has promises for our marriage, our children, our health and prosperity – every aspect of our lives – all of which are much bigger than we can currently see or understand. We need to look up and begin to see what God has for us, because he has so much more!” (emphasis added)
She goes on to say that we need to keep looking up and keep looking ahead when it comes to the purposes of God. It’s all about perspective and how we choose to see things. We won’t receive a true perspective and share our faith until we see and focus on the promises God gives us.
Our personal perspectives are so limited compared to God’s perspective and vision. He sees so much more than we do. He sees in the hearts and souls of us. He sees the broken. He sees the poor in spirit. He sees those who mourn and are meek. He sees the hunger and thirst and those pure in heart.
We’re so good at hiding those things under the rug and maybe that’s why we look down so much to make sure they stay under there and don’t come out so others won’t notice.
Maybe it’s time to reach down and lift it up. It’s time to see with a new perspective. The perspective that God has us. He keeps His promises. He wants us to look up to Him and follow Him. So…
Look up with confidence!
Look forward with opportunities.
Look ahead with the promise of the end of the race to come soon and be with HIM in eternity.
I’ll end with the question that Christine asks in her book,
“In your quest to follow Jesus more closely, how can you keep looking ahead in the direction you want to go?”
See other Wait and See Series posts here