Soccer World Cup kicked off on Thursday June 12 in Brazil.  To win, a player must combine skill and teamwork with awareness.  I would know because I’m a soccer player – forward position.  It is critical to be aware of your opponent and other teammates.  Hence, a player must raise his head or look up from focusing on the ball and scan the field.  Plainly put, if you don’t raise your head you won’t see your opponent or your teammate.

Teammates or friends represent the good in life.  These include opportunities for promotion or a job, for a new relationship, for an improved relationship, to close a deal, to acquire a house or car.  Sometimes you need to be placed in circumstances that force you to look up otherwise you won’t on your own.  If you didn’t get caught doing something crazy, you wouldn’t have realized that approaching the one you were avoiding wasn’t as difficult as you thought it was.  If you didn’t fail in one project you wouldn’t have realized there was a better method or better project elsewhere.  If you didn’t lose your money in one venture you wouldn’t have learned the hard financial lessons you needed for managing a much bigger one.  If you hadn’t lost the partner you were courting you wouldn’t have met the partner you are courting and who is better suited to you.  If you hadn’t lost that job you wouldn’t have found your dream job, or an opportunity to launch your own business.

It takes spiritual maturity and trust in God’s sovereignty to accept that He wants His best for you.  You ought to believe that because you are trusting God you are on the path He intended for you or that He will make your path right, even though it may seem to not be the right one (Proverbs 3: 5-6).

To trust in the Lord requires unshakable faith

Even if smothered with anxious fear and feeling you can’t wait

This trust requires raising your head to become aware

Of friends available to take you here, or take you there

These friends prevent your steps along one path

Because another one was more direct or apt

Or allow missteps to grow gratitude – for something better, someone better

Indeed to realize that opportunity, matching to the letter

For your awareness to be fed

You need to raise your head