Look Up

Every morning I take my dog for a walk. We’ve gotten into a pretty regular routine. I groggily put on whatever layers are needed and she practically pulls me out the door, trotting along happily no matter what the weather brings. As much as I dread mornings, this has actually become a lovely way to start my day. One of my favorite parts is listening to my daily devotional*. This is a habit I’ve struggled to maintain, but it fits beautifully into the peacefulness I feel when we are out…or perhaps it creates that peace. Sometimes I have to play it more than once because my mind wanders, but I make every effort to let the message seep into my soul and start my day grounded in God’s Truth.

And then it starts to beckon to me. The screen. What a great time to crack the Wordle code and make a few moves on Lexulous. Since I’m here, let’s pop in on my email and see what’s going on at school. Oh boy, look at all this junk mail I need to clean out. Notifications on Facebook? Those must be urgent. I should probably check Instagram so I can see the exact same posts but with hashtags. The spiral begins.

Granted, many of these things are therapeutic for me. There is undoubtedly some kind of dopamine rush I experience when I solve a word puzzle or see a hilarious meme. I crave connection with people and social media is one way to achieve that. But it occurred to me recently that most of the walk has been spent with my face in the phone, looking down. Several years ago I wrote a blog entry titled “Look Where You Want to Go**,” in which I shared how much I was missing by only focusing on what was right in front of me. That same realization hit me again–LOOK UP. And there it was, the most beautiful skyline I had seen in a long time. I had been missing the chance to marvel at God’s creation. To enjoy the peace and quiet the morning held. To just breathe and relax.

So this all begs the question, what are we looking up from? Our phones? Our work? Our to-do lists? What has so captured our attention that we sit two feet away from people and rarely look them in the eye or engage in conversation? What are we focusing our energy on that prevents us from looking around to see what others are doing or what they might need? We have such tunnel vision, and sometimes justifiably so. It is important to be focused at work, attentive to our children, pay attention to our finances…but it occurs to me how much we are missing when we allow these things to completely consume our time and energy.

And this is the part where we consider what we are looking up to. On my walks, it’s my surroundings that I look up and notice, but it is really so much more than that. Once I look at the beautiful sunrise or the incredible mountain formations, it puts my mind in a whole different realm. I think about The Creator who made that sunrise and those mountains and I am just in awe. It shifts my thinking from a place of ‘doing’ to a place of ‘being.’ The urgency of to-do lists and status updates on social media fade for a bit and I can connect with something much more real and valuable. And for me, that cannot be separated from God. He provides all the blessings I see when I look up: the amazing landscape where I live, my children’s faces, a loving family, dear friends, an incredible team at work, a cozy house…I could go on and on. But I am remiss when I keep my head down and neglect to see these things. So now I am praying to feel God’s hand lifting my chin when I start to slip, because I don’t want to miss any of it.

You may not have the same perspective, but I would imagine that looking up from whatever is capturing your attention would lead to something much more fulfilling. When you do experience it, I encourage you to take notice and remember how amazing it feels: journal about it, post it on social media, shout it from the mountaintops! Look up, my friend, there is so very much to see. God bless.

*My devotional app: Our Daily Bread (www.odb.org)

**Referenced blog: https://www.jesskettles.com/post/look-where-you-want-to-go