Eyes Up
“My eyes are ever on the Lord.”
Psalm 25:15 (NIV)
Last week my husband Bruce and our special needs son James Bruce quarantined for six wonderful days at the beach after being confined to our home for almost 7 weeks. Our first day out on the beach was a picture perfect beach day. The water was calm, clear and blue. We had a gentle breeze coming in from the Gulf and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a welcome relief from the 7 weeks of quarantine at home. People were social distancing, but no one was wearing a mask. Sounds of laughter from both children and adults filled the air and for the first time in a long time life seemed so normal.
Suddenly a gray Navy fighter jet appeared, buzzed the beach and flew past us before going completely vertical. As the jet passed both the sight of the jet and the noise it produced grabbed everyone’s attention. People stopped reading, swimming, playing, or walking. Everything and everyone came to a complete stand still and all eyes went up as we all gazed into sky. The moment was over as quickly as it appeared. Except that it wasn’t! In less than 40 minutes, the scenario was repeated 6 more times. Each time the pilot buzzed the beach before going vertical or banking sharply left or sharply right. One fighter jet, 7 beach flyovers, all eyes up each time!
Our unusual aerial show was memorable enough by itself, but God really grabbed my attention with the pilot’s impressive aeronautics display. My 2020 sacred echo consists of two little words that represent a significant life change: “Eyes UP!” Author Margaret Feinberg defines a sacred echo as a whisper from God that He repeatedly uses to grab and hold our attention. The echo may come from a word, phrase, event, Bible verse, or object that repeats or runs as a theme in our everyday lives. God often uses a sacred echo to get our attention.
My 2020 “Eyes up” sacred echo actually began in July 2019 when I received a speaking invitation for a Christmas event from a church in Georgia. The program’s theme was “JOY” and our text was Luke 1-2. We looked at 6 different “good news, great joy” events recorded in those chapters. Each person’s joy- (Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, the shepherds, Simeon, and Anna) directly linked to his or her ability to look up. Two months later speaking at a February 2020 women’s retreat, the Scripture text was Philippians, but our top takeaway or life application was the same. If we want to increase our joy, we need to keep our eyes up.
My study preparation for both events had led me to two verses in Psalm 25.
Psalm 25:1 “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul” and 25:15 “My eyes are ever on the Lord.”
A quick word search for the phrase “lift up” showed me that throughout the Bible we are commanded to lift up:
Our heads
Our souls
Our eyes,
Our hands
Our banners
Our voices
“Lift up our voices” sounded awfully close to our worship pastor’s command for “no soft singing!” But I was particularly drawn to the words “lift up.” The Hebrew word for that phrase is “n-a-s-a, nasa”. It means a lifting up or to raise. Long before the United States chose that acronym as an abbreviation for our national space exploration program, King David was using to the word to remind him to lift up his soul to trust God (25:1) and lift up his eyes to focus on Who God is and What He has done. (25:15)
Read Psalm 25 and you’ll see that David acknowledges his:
Sin
Shame
Circumstances
Suffering
Enemies
Loneliness
Fear
Trouble and
Affliction
But his focus is on squarely fixed on Who God is and what He has done. When David’s eyes look up, he sees God’s:
Trustworthiness
Mercy
Truth
Forgiveness
Deliverance
Righteousness
Covenant
Grace
Blessing
Love
David also wrote the words of Psalm 86:4 “Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.”
The Bible is clear. To increase our joy, we must keep our Eyes Up! Instead of focusing on our sin, ourselves, our circumstances, our suffering, or our social media, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despised the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
What was the joy set before Jesus? We were! Christ’s eyes were on us.
No matter where we are today- the Covid 19 pandemic, raising kids, job loss, not being able to fully gather at church- whatever we are facing, let’s keep our eyes up on Who God is and what He has done. “Eyes Up” is an absolute necessity if we want a fixed focus, a firm stand, and a faithful finish for a life well lived.
But “eyes up” isn’t just a better life strategy than “churning and burning.” And one day “eyes up” will bring a much greater sight than a Navy jet beach flyover:
“Look he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. I am the Alpha and Omega who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’(Revelation 1:7-8)
Read the Bible and look for all of God’s “eyes up” sacred echoes.
“Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I nasa (lift up) my soul.” Psalm 86:4
Eyes up for our good and God’s glory!