When I was in the first grade, I was the fastest runner in my class. I could outrun boys and girls alike. It was a beautiful thing. But when I hit second grade, a new girl came to school who could run faster than me. In my eyes, that made her a wonderment, and I tried in every way I could to be her. I found myself in a position of respecting her and at the same time, one, of growing envy. That old adage of “keeping your friends close and your enemies closer,” subconsciously came into play even in my seven-year-old mind. So, one day walking together—I had invited her over to play—I asked her what her secret was to running so fast. Her answer, “I run with my eyes up. I look at the clouds as I run, and that makes me fly like the wind.” Strange as it seems, that’s what I tried. I don’t know if it worked, but up until the third grade, I could still beat any guy, even boys who were 12 years old!
What she said though, “running with my eyes up,” has stuck with me through the years. Like a piece of wonderful chocolate to be savored, those words have translated into many areas of my life. And today, in the light, or should I say in the darkness of everything that is happening world-wide, they ring truer than ever before.
The world as my generation and the one even my grown children knew, seems to be crumbling before our eyes. Nothing is as simple, as sweet, as easy, as it seems to have been in years past. You can see it from the crazy way people drive—taking unbelievable chances of turning in front of an oncoming vehicle that’s a mere ten feet away, or careening 90 to 100 miles an hour on a heavily trafficked freeway—to the mass killing of people. People in San Bernardino who were working in an office, or those in Paris, listening to music, and now, in Orlando, unsuspecting victims dancing in a nightclub were gunned down. And for what reason? It feels like people are losing their minds.
To hurt with those who are hurting, to weep with those who are weeping is rooted deep in our hearts because we are created in the image of God—and that is His heart. And by His grace, we do and will. Surrounding in any way we can, those who have lost loved ones to this insanity—from bringing food, to donating blood, to holding their loved ones in remembrance, and praying for those who are left—our hearts break with their loss. We wish we could make it all go away.
At the same time, though, to focus on this evil, also gives it more power. In the Bible, we are told to think on whatever is good and true. That does not mean at all to ignore or to forget what has happened by acting like an ostrich sticking our heads in the sand. But to me, it means to look upward, heavenward to the Lord so that we can walk side-by-side with those who have been left with wounds they will never forget. We can “walk with our eyes up,” offering the healing salve of the grace of Jesus, that we too, in times of great need, have received.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. -2 Corinthians 1:3,4 NKJV
In His love,
Kimberly
