Look Up

Recently, I was out with a friend, and we saw an elderly man who made us sad. Well, she did the seeing part, but described him to me. He stood straight, yet his neck was bent so that it was nearly parallel to the ground. The only way he could look was down. He was accompanied by some one else who served as the navigator.
We wondered what had happened to this man so that all he could see was his feet. Was his condition a result of accident, disease, age, or habit? I didn’t even realize at the time that he could see more than me. I just felt sad for all he was missing around and above him.
I got to thinking that many of us may figuratively be like this man. How often does our gaze focus down instead of up to Christ? How often are we stuck in the sorrow and stress of the here and now, and not look forward or what is eternally more important? What would happen in our lives if we practiced looking up? How many more people could we help? How much more revelation and direction could we receive? How much happier would we be?
Alma teaches his son Helaman to, “look to God and live” (Alma 37:47). This can be a pattern for us. We can look up and see things with a heavenly reference. Our way of living can have a vertical focus instead of horizontal where we look to others as an indication of our progress.
My invitation to us all is to notice the direction of our focus, and try to look up and forward to Christ and to the good things around us. Let me know what you find.