Are your days spent bouncing from one toddler tantrum to the next? Eyes up. Persevere, momma. Do the hard work. Make disciples in your home. Train these littles in the ways of the Lord. Is some other person living the life you want? Eyes up. Be thankful and be faithful where God has placed you. Trust him in and with your circumstances. Has your spouse not lived up to the expectations that exist in your mind? Eyes up. Obey God and love your spouse out of the love shown you by your father. Did you fail to measure up at work this week? Eyes up. See your God delighting in you from the throne.

I have a friend (Brittany Salmon, in case you’re wondering) that I get to spend short snippets of time with every few months. We live in different states, but she comes to my city for seminary classes a few times a year. She’s busy during her intensives, but always makes time to grab a quick meal with me. I typically drop everything and rush to see her because I love her, respect her, and flat out crave her influence in my life.

On one such visit, over a hurried lunch of chicken shawarma, my friend spoke two simple words that began to reshape me. “Eyes up.”

If you have the pleasure of knowing Brittany, you can easily imagine the passionate tone she used to speak these two syllables. My memory of this conversation includes her banging her hand on the table to emphasize each word. Eyes (thump). Up (thump).

The context of our conversation that day addressed the potential temptations that accompany online writing. The trappings lurk in the shadows, waiting to devour all who seek the approval of an earthly audience. Our enemy pounces with the analytics to prove our great fear—indeed, only three people (besides our mom) read that last post.

When our fellow writers’ sentences go forth with the power to influence a wayward culture, and our own sentences struggle for proper subject-verb agreement, our enemy feeds us with a steady diet of lies that we all-too-easily swallow. “You’re not good enough.” “You’re ineffective.” “Your ministry is pointless.”

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