Looking Up…

I know it’s said all the time, almost to a point where your personal heart ache and struggle is belittled by the suggestion of a simple action. When times are tough, you are told to “look up”. When you feel like you cannot move forward another step, again, “look up”. When darkness feels like it is suffocating you, “look up”. And yet in those moments, looking up can feel just as empty, if not more so. Instead of looking at the emptiness of what is in front of me, in looking up I get to try to comprehend the vast emptiness of the sky. Sometimes it doesn’t help. NOT. ONE. BIT. It is asking me to look up to my God for strength that I just don’t see in that moment.

So let me offer a different version in this recent “midnight” season of my life. Lift your head a little. Lift your eyes just enough to catch a glimpse of the “balcony”. Yes. There is a balcony full of people. YOUR PEOPLE. And I guarantee you that they are cheering you on. Because that is what they do in your life. See them so you can hear them…the Jerry’s, the Lana’s, the Tricia’s, the Ed’s. Telling you that YOU CAN DO IT. YOU’VE GOT THIS. Their prayers lift the words that you currently are unable to. Their voices root you on through the sticky times when you are pressing through the muck and mire of life.

Personally, I’m so close to this dream, the waiting feels impossible anymore. At times, it can overwhelm me and just get downright defeating. But I lift my head just a little, and I see them. I close my eyes and I can hear them. Cheering us on. Shouting for us to keep pressing forward. They are praying for us…for time, resources, miracles, and our hearts.

We all have balcony people in our lives that are our biggest fans. God put them there—just for you for such a season as this. We all have a balcony that He has placed us in. It may be your season to lift your head a little, or maybe it’s your season to be a head lifter. Either way, I’m thankful to Jesus for the balconies.