Lift Your Eyes a Little Higher

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Set is the important word. It is something you do, not something that happens to you. Affection can be aimed.

Left alone, our attention always falls to whatever is loudest and nearest — the bill, the message, the disappointment, the person who did not reply. None of those are imaginary. But they are not the whole picture either, and staring at them all day makes them look bigger than God.

Setting your affection higher is not pretending the trouble is not there. It is refusing to let the trouble be the only thing in view. You lift your eyes, you remember who God is, and the problem returns to its real size.

Some things in your life today are urgent but small. Some are quiet but eternal. Give the eternal things a bit more of your gaze than they have been getting.