Look Up

Several years ago Elder Carl B. Cook told this story in general conference: “At the end of a particularly tiring day toward the end of my first week as a General Authority, my briefcase was overloaded and my mind was preoccupied with the question ‘How can I possibly do this?’ I left the office of the Seventy and entered the elevator of the Church Administration Building. As the elevator descended, my head was down and I stared blankly at the floor. The door opened and someone entered, but I didn’t look up. As the door closed, I heard someone ask, ‘What are you looking at down there?’ I recognized that voice—it was President Thomas S. Monson. I quickly looked up and responded, ‘Oh, nothing.’ But he had seen my subdued countenance and my heavy briefcase. He smiled and lovingly suggested, while pointing heavenward, ‘It is better to look up!’ As we traveled down one more level, he cheerfully explained that he was on his way to the temple. When he bid me farewell, his parting glance spoke again to my heart, ‘Now, remember, it is better to look up.’” I love that invitation from President Monson and its message for all of us. The Psalmist wrote, “For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me” (Psalm 40:12). Like Elder Cook he did not look up to God because of the problems surrounding him, but President Monson’s message to us all is that we must look up, especially when difficulties surround us. When the weight of our problems weighs us down, we must symbolically learn to look up to God and live.   

                Several invitations in the scriptures similarly invite us to look up to God as we are tempted to only look down at our trials. For example, Alma gave this counsel to his son Helaman (who would have his share fair of trials to bring him down): “And now, my son, see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live” (Alma 37:47). Helaman’s grandson Nephi explained how the children of Israel were also invited to look up to God when they were threatened with death from snakes: “Did [Moses] not bear record that the Son of God should come? And as he lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, even so shall he be lifted up who should come. And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal” (Helaman 8:14-15). To be healed from the serpents the children of Israel had to look up to the brazen serpent—representing the Savior—that Moses held up as the first Nephi explained: “After they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look” (1 Nephi 17:41). That is our labor to perform: we must be able to see past our problems and look to God. Nephi also described his people’s attitude: “We keep the law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ” and he urged us to do the same: “Look forward unto Christ with steadfastness for the signs which are given” (2 Nephi 25:24,26:8). Nephi had shown that this was exactly how he faced difficult circumstances when he was tied up on a boat in a terrible storm. Instead of wallowing in his misery he did this: “Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions” (1 Nephi 18:16). We must also look forward and look up to the Savior no matter what the trials that surround us are. I love how Jacob put it: “Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause” (Jacob 3:1). The best way through our problems here is to first look up to God, looking for His grace and goodness to guide and strengthen us. The Savior’s invitation found in the words of Isaiah is surely meant for each of us today: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22). Indeed, it is always better to look up to God.