My family lived on a farm in northern Montana from the time I was six-years-old until I was about nine or ten.  We had long hot summers and long cold winters.  It seemed the seasons came in extremes.

I remember my dad, brothers, and visiting cousins coming home, black with soot, after fighting a prairie fire all day.  I also remember riding snowmachines to school when roads were blown in with snow, popping popcorn in the cellar when the electricity was out, and finding a grain bin a mile down the road after a tornado came through the yard.

To the farmers, I imagine the winters seemed terribly slow and the summers very full as most of life focused on the fall harvest.  The grain bins in every barnyard served as constant reminders of that focus, however - even in the dead of winter.

This morning, on my walk, I noticed that I kept alternating my attention between the rocky path in front of me and the distant mountains on the horizon.  If I enjoyed the surrounding view a moment too long, I'd find myself tripping; if I kept my eyes on my feet, I missed out on the rising sun.

As I thought of this, I realized the importance of seeing both the immediate and the distant.  One is not more important than the other, but each can be dangerous on its own.

Think of Jesus.  He lived each moment as an act of obedience to His Father.  Each thought, word, and action was a willful choice of submission and love.  And yet His eyes were always on the horizon - the road to Jerusalem and the return to His Father's side.

Focusing solely on one or the other could have brought either discouragement, as He could have become overwhelmed at the surrounding needs and areas of personal surrender, or it could have also caused Him to stumble if He only saw what was to come but not how to get there.

I have written several times about dying to ourselves and being broken before the Lord.  This lifestyle of surrendered love is God's chosen and perfect plan for us as His children.

It is equally important, however, to raise our eyes to the horizon - regularly - to see the bigger picture and the joy which is set before us.  The farthest horizon is, of course, our ultimate reconciliation with the Father at the end of the ages.  There are so many more mountains on the horizon before that time, however.

What has God put in your heart?  As you have longed for Him, what longing has come from Him?  Do you see the earth filled with His glory - passion and fire poured out through a renewed and purified Body?  Do you see the Spirit of revelation hovering over cities and nations, opening the blind eyes and deaf ears to understand the mysteries of our God?

Jesus lived and walked in the will of the Father, which included bruising, sickness, grief, and death.  But death was not the end for Jesus.  After offering His life, He rose again to receive three amazing promises:  He saw His spiritual offspring; His days were prolonged; and the will and pleasure of the Lord prospered in His hand.  In short, He saw the fruit of the travail of His soul and was satisfied.

Our walk will include no less if we truly submit and walk the path He has chosen for us - a life of knowing Him fully, of sharing in His sufferings "so as to be continually transformed in His likeness even to death, in hope that if possible (we) may attain the spiritual and moral resurrections that lifts (us) out from among the dead even while in the body."(Phil. 3:10-11)  Dying daily to our own will and desires does not have to be the end for us.  Jesus set the example:  we, also, are to live the resurrection life, even as we are being broken.  Look up.  Do you see your spiritual children on the horizon?  Do you see a long life filled with the will and pleasure of the Lord?  Do you see beyond the travailing of your soul to the sweet satisfaction?

We should be a bit like the anableps, a Caribbean fish.  Because of its double retina, it is sometimes called the four-eyed fish.  The top retina watches the sky above, while the bottom retina watches the water below.  We need to be mindful that each step taken is one ordained by the Lord, but we also need to have one eye on the glorious Kingdom being built around us. 

 

Amy