Just look up! Psalm 8

Almost everyday for five years, at some point in the day, I would look up. It was typically when I was running, but also driving. It didn't matter what I was doing, thinking or feeling. If life was good, it made it better. If life was not so good, it made it bearable, but it always worked.

Living in Colorado fed my soul in so many ways, but one of the key ways was that it forced me to look up. And when I did, when I looked up at the mostly snow packed Long's Peak (the nearest and most visible 14'ner) these words would fill my mind, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

I don't naturally look up. I can get so lost in the worries of life and the concerns of the day that I drown in the deep end of my sorrow, guilt and worry, but He seems to bring me back time and again. He seems to give me something to lift my chin to be reminded of who He is and who I am. You see the thing we need most is to look as high up as we can for it is then and only then that we can remember that He is even higher. When we see that He is higher than the highest thing, we can find life in being a lowly thing that God has lifted high. When we look up we wonder why He takes any time with us at all. Yet considering the central place we hold in His mind and heart centers our hearts and minds in a right place: not too high, but not too low! "What is man that you are mindful of him..."

So look up today. I have found that I don't need a mountain to look up. I have found that it merely takes seeing something bigger, and more beautiful than me. It may be the MS river on a run, but it may also be listening to and laughing with your mom. I took Braden to the zoo Monday. It was just the two of us, and I was so captivated by him. It was so fun to watch his little mind work, to see the look on his face as he watched the gorillas eating their lettuce, carrots and celery. I realized Monday that looking up means getting out of yourself, for there is life.

So look up today. Look away from your problems, challenges, classes and trials. Look away from the worries of tomorrow and remember your place below God, yet honored by God.  Look up and say, if not scream, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth."

Love,
dad