LOOK UP!

By John Stallings

Charles Lindbergh told of his lonely flight to Paris in 1927… the first man to cross the Atlantic alone in a plane.

 

Lindberg reported running into a blinding storm out of whose thick clouds lightening flashed. The flier looked to his right, but the clouds and the storm seemed to extend as far as he could see to the right. He looked to his left, but, again, the storm seemed to extend as far as he could see to his left. The clouds seemed to sink ever lower. The pilot said that he knew his little plane wouldn’t stand that buffeting wind and those sharp lightening bolts for long. There was just one thing to do. Lindbergh tilted the controls upward. The little plane trembled and shivered and climbed until it shot through the clouds and out into the bright sunshine of a cloudless sky.

 

 The guide leading his tour group on some narrow ledge of the Alps, or some other high place, will say every so often, "Do not look down." Those of us who suffer from fear of heights find it the hardest thing in the world not to look down.

Movie-makers have many ways to build suspense and instill terror through their pictures. One time-honored device is to appeal to our fear of heights which comes from looking down. They will picture someone perched on the narrow ledge of a skyscraper, seventy or a hundred stories from the ground. This doesn’t frighten us as much if the ledge is wide enough to stand on. 

LOOK UP!

We get chills down our spines seeing the person up on the ledge and then panning the camera down all the way to the street where traffic is moving. This makes some of us want to scream. It is the downward look which is so terrifying, so chilling, and so unbearable.

Recently I was watching a T.V show where some young adventurous folk were laughingly throwing things off a sky scraper in New York. I’m sure they’d gotten permission from the city and had the area roped off. Nonetheless, as I watched, with the camera panning down then going back to the people on a roof doing the throwing, I was surprised at how nervous and squeamish I got. I’ve never had that much of a problem with fear but my body couldn’t survive the amount of medication it would take to get me to even go to the rooftop where this was going on.

Life can be pretty dreadful if we spend our time looking down. I’m not saying for a moment that there’s not the strong temptation to look down, to look for the worst. Heaven knows there’s more than enough that is low, distasteful, destructive and discouraging to look at these days.

An honest and Godly faith will not deny that there are awful realities in life. We know that the faith of Christ stated honestly isn’t “pie in the sky” descriptions of life. Jesus never claimed that things cannot be horrific and tragic. He rather made plenty of space for the things that are destructive and harmful, the devilish, demonic powers that are loose in the world

In all reality there’s a frightening, chilling list, of ruthless forces coming against our lives and playing havoc with our dreams and our hopes. In these words of Jesus, we can hear the roar of a great storm with its screaming winds leaving a fearful and empty silence in its wake.

Let Jesus speak. He says … "ye shall hear of wars and commotion, nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, great earthquakes shall be in diverse places." Luke 21:9

On and on He goes about outside conditions, "signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars." How apropos a description this is for our times!

Jesus does not stop with His recitation of our day. He probes at the internal struggle of our souls. Jesus says that under the pressure of outside forces a man's spiritual defenses may feel as if they’re crumbling. And they indeed can crumble. But the facts are; you and I can stand anything if our faith holds fast. If an anchor holds, then never mind how strong and contrary the winds might be. If, on the other hand, our faith fails and our spiritual fortress is overrun, then all hope is lost.

Jesus spoke of it in these awesome words: "Men's hearts failing them for fear." Fear has an awesome mortality rate. Things can go so awfully wrong that the confidence upon which life is built can begin to totter. The night of sorrow or pain can be so long and so lonely that it seems that all about us there is only insanity, and ugliness.

The temptation is to look down. That is what we are seeing all around us. We see such violations of honor in places of public trust and responsibility. Many people have decided that everybody is a crook in public life. The temptation is to look down. Those of us who love the church and the gospel and are in the role of the leadership see so much that is discouraging. So many of our churches are little more than social clubs, or places to vent emotional energy.

I’m embarrassed and ashamed at some things I see being done in the name of God. I blush at some of the schemes and methods some folk practice who’re supposed to be the shepherds of the people of God. Is it any wonder that men and women give up on the church?

It’s easy to look down, but Jesus says that at such a time, "Look up. Lift up your head." Do not look down where all is ugly and corrupt and the world around us seems so low, so conniving and so selfish.

On the other hand, you and I know people whose hearts beat not just for themselves? Fix your mind and heart on them, not on the low-lifes. Look up!

The divorce rate seems to always be climbing and many people seem not to take seriously the vow "till death do us part." Sometimes I almost choke on those words in marriage ceremonies. Don't look down! I know of couples who’ve celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries in joy and happiness. Don't look down! Look up!

You and I need to be one of those examples upon which others may look and take strength. There are such people. I have known, still know, scores of folk whose example gives us courage, whose dauntless faith inspires our faith. Look up toward such examples. I have known people who lived such giant lives in God that I can hardly hope to have all of their gifts and graces. As in Elijah’s day, God still has thousands who “haven’t bowed their knee to Baal.”

Look up! Lift up your heads! Your redemption dreweth nigh. 

Jesus still lives; the Holy Spirit is still at work; the God of all comfort is still on the throne. Things may go so terribly wrong that everything seems defiled and spoiled. Look up. This is the worst and most sinister danger- that we, looking down, will be content to live in the lowlands of doubt, fear and defeat.

Some may have come to that really desperate and terrible place, to that awful night of the soul where you suspect that there is no God anywhere in all the thick and starless night through which you are passing. Some may be at the place where they wonder if trying to be decent and honest is still worthwhile, that right and wrong are just words that people use. When that kind of terrible doubt grips you by the throat and starts choking you, shake yourself loose and look up! God no doubt is on His way to rescue you right now.

Like Lindbergh, by looking up you can climb above the clouds and mists and rains which have now blinded your view.

The clouds may be heavy where you’re traveling. Look up, and by faith face skyward. Above the clouds the sun is shining, somewhere warm winds are blowing, and the skies are cloudless and clear. 

Up above the clouds of gossip and slander there is –A fellowship, and a joy divine.

My good friend Gordon Jensen wrote a beautiful song that comes to mind.

Redemption Draweth Nigh

Years of time have come and gone. Since I first heard it told

How Jesus would come again some day

If back then it seemed so real
Then I just can’t help but feel
How much closer His coming is today

[Chorus]
Signs of the times are everywhere
There’s a brand new feeling in the air
Keep your eyes upon the eastern sky
Lift up your head redemption draweth nigh.

 Look up! 

 Blessings,

John