“Look up.”
I heard this on my bike ride yesterday. (M Squad did a pledgathon to raise support together- I ended up biking and people pledged a certain amount per mile.) It was towards the end of my ride and I was slowly making my way up a pretty sizable hill. I was focused on the ground right in front of me and I was debating calling it quits right then and there.
God told me to look up. It was one of those out of the blue, where did that come from moments. I looked up and I saw the beauty that was all around me; the trees, flowers, and white clouds in the bright blue sky… it took me completely by surprise. That change in focus got me up the hill and through the rest of my ride.
I am so bogged down right now with preparation for my World Race. To be honest, my biggest stress is my impending second round at Training Camp. Truly candid moment: I don’t want to go. At all. So much so, I still haven’t bought a plane ticket. If my mobilizer emailed me and was all, “Hey girl, we’ve been talking about it and we don’t think you need to come down this August, but it’s up to you.” I would seriously consider staying home. TC is hard, man. A “good” kind of hard, a life-changing kind of hard… but hard nonetheless. (But, to be honest… I would still end up going.)
It’s amazing to me how much the phrase “look up” (or a variation thereof) is used in the Bible. Constantly, people are going about their life and suddenly they look up and see something life changing.
- In Genesis 15, God told Abram to look up and count the stars, promising Abram that his children would outnumber them.
- In Joshua 5, Joshua looks up and sees an angel of the Lord, who gives him instructions on how to defeat Jericho.
- In Matthew 14, Jesus looks up to heaven, blesses the loaves and fish, and feeds the 5,000.
- In Acts 7, right before he was stoned to death, Stephen looks up and sees Jesus at the right hand of God.
It’s a shift in focus, looking up. It’s pointing your eyes towards something that’s beyond yourself… and remembering Who is in control.
I have to stop focusing on the minutiae of the World Race… I need to look up; turn my eyes to the only One worthy of my complete and total attention, and allow Him to alter my vision and direct my path.
Last year before Training Camp, God told me I needed to “say yes” to what He wanted to do; that’s the spirit I went to TC with, my mantra (so to speak).
This year, in this season, the Lord is really impressing on my spirit that I need to “look up”.
So, in the moments of joy, in the difficult moments, when I’m hungry and hot and tired and oh so smelly, when someone is irritating me, when I cannot run one more second, when I’m crying because I can’t climb that wall, when I’m worshiping the Creator of the universe with my brothers and sisters, when I’m having the time of my life, and when I just want to go home… I will look up.
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.”
Psalm 121:1-2
