Parents, we go where we look. We now have a whole new life race before us, the world situation has changed dramatically and we will need to make some adjustments. I kinda feel like a cow staring at a new gate. As we emerge from the initial shock, we have to begin thinking about where we are headed, how we want to finish, and where we need to be looking to get there.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to try a new sport. I had a friend who was a really good water skier (Linda N Mike Messer). He would go on to become a nationally ranked jumper, who flew gracefully in the air before landing on the water more than a half a football field from the ramp. One day he was coaching me over the jump. I went off the ramp and looked straight down, I let go of the rope and began flailing until my body splatted awkwardly on the water. I must have looked like a disoriented flying squirrel shot from a potato gun. From that height and speed, the surface of the water feels like concrete. (Mind you, I was travelling nowhere near the height or speed he traveled in the air when he jumped.) Fortunately I was wearing a brain bucket and life jacket, but it still hurt. When my friend drove the boat around to pick me up. I said, “what did I do wrong?” He said, “You go where you look... and you were looking down. Keep your head and eyes up and your body will follow.” As I grew older, I discovered that his coaching advice is true in life as well as ski jumping. While I didn’t do a lot more ski jumping, I still had more life to do. I was frequently reminded “you go where you look.”
As we weather and emerge from this world-wide crisis, there are a lot of places we can be looking. We can look back at the way things were and the things we lost (this didn’t go well for Lot’s wife, she was a little salty about her new situation and what she was losing). While it may be healthy to grieve what could have been, we don’t want to get stuck in a spiral of saying “If only,” or “I don’t wanna go,” or “I woulda, shoulda, coulda.” We can look at the situations of people around us, this can be a mistake too, because we are always prone to compare ourselves with others…feeling prideful if we perceive we are in a better spot than someone else… or feeling less-than because there is always someone in a better place. We can look down and get depressed about where this situation has left us. We can choose to “look out for number 1,” thinking only of ourselves, always looking for the next deal we can win, the next way to get ahead, the next situation we can take advantage of. We can look around us in fear, always scanning the horizon for what else could happen to us.
So where do we look in this new situation that we have been thrust into by this global pandemic? What will help us finish well in this brand new life course that we find ourselves in? The writer of Hebrews tells us exactly where to look, regardless of what is happening in our world. He had just told us the reason all the believers before us had finished well and he then tells us, “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.” Hebrews 12:2 (MSG)
Hang in there people! God is with us! I’m praying for you all!
