Where Do I Look?

I spend a lot of time looking at the ground where we live.  I walk narrow, dirty lanes every day.  I need to see where my feet are landing, both to make sure that the ground is even and that I don't step on anything I'd rather not!  The paths can change from day to day with the thousands that walk them and the rubbish that might accumulate or the pipe repairs that cause the paths to be torn up a lot.  Some things that don't change can be unexpected like the random stair that is not the same height as the others on the steps up from the Metro.  (I've found this out the hard way a number of times at different exits around the city!)

As a woman I keep my eyes down, too.  In the culture here I don't look up into someone's face to smile as I pass unless I can tell that the feet attached are female.  It's hard for me to break the habit of meeting the eyes of a stranger and coming across as brazen, so it's better that I just look down.  

It's easy to look down in regards to the cares and concerns of those around me, too.  It's easy to try to find my own practical path through what I can see myself of a situation and where it looks like in my own wisdom that my feet should go.

But that's the exact opposite of what I should do!  Looking down physically is necessary, but inside it's even more important that I remember to look UP.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains— 

where does my help come from? 

My help comes from the LO.RD, 

the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip......

......the LO.RD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."

                            Ps. 121:1-3, 8

I looked back over what's showing up on the front page of this blog before I wrote this and my impression was, well......a bit gloomy!!!  A lot of difficult things have happened the past couple of months and not all of them have we mentioned here.  But at the same time we are well aware that He,"Works all things together for the good."  Sometimes when the pot is getting stirred good things are coming!  And we know that He's got good things in store for this community!!!  And while the realities of the lives of the women we focus on are harsh, we have HOPE in Him.  And so do they-----even if they don't know it yet.