This is your life
by Sonia Hulme
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I lift my eyes to the hills – from where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1,2).
The hills in this psalm may have looked lovely and inviting to the pilgrims walking up to Jerusalem each year. But the psalmist encouraged them not to look there as they fixed their eyes on their endpoint in Jerusalem. The hills were where little temples and shrines to other gods were located. So, were they good places to go for help and guidance? Definitely not!
What are our equivalents today? I suggest that our false gods and idol temples don’t require us to look up anywhere today. Because most of us are looking down. Maybe if it were written now, Psalm 121 would look more like this:
‘I drop my eyes to my phone – from where does my help come from?’
We don’t need to look much further than the end of our arms to find our longed-for guidance and answers to life problems. Phones can comfort us when we are lonely, entertain us when we are bored, answer all our questions about anything we’ve ever wondered and connect us in an instant with every person we have ever known in our lives. And, yes, it is also true that we can read the Bible on them, listen to sermons and encourage friends. What’s so bad about that?
There has been lots of research on this, but perhaps at the heart of it is that our phones draw us away from being fully present from where we are. Do you ever go to them for one thing and end up drifting from one screen to another, flicking, scrolling, searching … for what? They take us from being ‘now-here’ to ‘no-where’ at all and severely challenge our ability to pay attention to the people and the God right in front of us.
Next time you are tempted to ‘drop your eyes’, remember where it is that your help comes from. As tempting as the hills of idol worship was to the pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem and our modern-day idols might be to us, the satisfaction, guidance and relationship he is offering are worth us fixing our eyes straight ahead for. The heavenly Jerusalem is the endpoint of our earthly pilgrimage, and incredibly, our God both walks with us and waits for us there.
Forgive me for the times I look everywhere else but you for all I need to flourish as your child. Help me to notice you at work in my life and the gift and opportunities you give me in the relationships right in front of me. I am blessed. Amen.
Sonia lives in the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide with her husband and five children. She works part-time in a support role at Good Shepherd Lutheran School and as a spiritual director, helping people discern God at work in their lives.
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