Look Up

I’ve realized once more in the last few days how easy it can be to get caught up in the excitement of things going on around you. This is so especially if it’s the same thing everyone is concerned with. It’s easy to let passions run high, emotions fly, words spew forth without regard and generally forget anything else but the importance of your opinion.

But it’s not just elections that do that to us. Every day, we are faced with a myriad of cares that have incredible ability to absorb our full attention. Sometimes they’re small things and other times they’re significant things, but we spend a good amount of time trying to work things out and make things work the best way we know how. 

Inevitably, we end up with a ‘rat race’ of sorts, with a fire-fighting life composed of moving from one crisis – or one ‘event’ – to another, losing sight of the bigger picture we’re supposed to be living for God. It is perhaps this aspect of human nature that Christ was referring to in the parable of the Sower when he pointed out that ‘the thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the Good News, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares of this life…”

The Bible paints pictures for us to help us figure out what to do to keep ourselves from getting absorbed in the cares of our daily lives, and the message is simply this – keep your eyes on Christ and what He’s about.

In one instance, Jesus was taking a nap in the boat when the tempests hit. The disciples, most of them seasoned fishermen, turned instantly into a scared bunch, waking Jesus with the exclamation that they were about to die. When He did wake up and calm the storm, his rebuke was gentle but clear – why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith in me? While their fear and anxiety may have been justified in the heated moment, His concern was with the bigger picture, the fact that their reaction to the situation said something about the state of their hearts.

At another time, they went out by themselves and came back with glowing reports of how they had healed sick people, cast out demons and stuff like that. Jesus was curt – rejoice not that the demons listen to you, but that your name is written in the Book of Life. In other words, even in the ‘victory’ moments of life, we shouldn’t be carried away by the moment and forget to keep our eyes on Him and what it’s all about.

I love how Paul puts in Colossians 3:1-2 (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.”

 All Christ wants us to do is to ‘get’ Him, to get what He’s about and run with it. Easier said than done, of course. But every time you find yourself caught up in the cares, anxieties or passions at ground level in your life, take a moment, step back and look up. Ask yourself what is going on around Christ, tap into His perspective, and stay there. That, really, is where the action is. And His perspective will keep you from getting off tangent with the things around you.