I had an interesting experience once at the hospital. Having parked on the second floor, I was walking to the elevators. Just as I arrived the doors opened and I stepped into the elevator, right behind a woman who had been standing there waiting already. Three women were already in the elevator and I assumed they parked above us and we were all going down into the hospital.
As soon as the doors closed we began to move and the woman who got on with me blurted out, “Are we going up?” Actually, I had exactly the same thought! Preoccupied with the friend I was going to visit I had not paid attention to the up/down lights. Neither had the lady who got on with me. We both had stepped in, believing it was going down.
As we rode up the three women confessed they were lost and had no idea what level they had parked on. So they started at the bottom and were searching every level going up until they found their car! I chuckled inside remembering a couple of times I had to check a couple of parking levels myself!
As the ladies exited I reached and pushed the ground floor button to go back down. The woman who had gotten on with me said, “I think I need to get off at one.” Assuming she might not be familiar with the hospital changes I offered, “You can’t get into the hospital from the first floor area anymore. You have to go all the way to the ground floor.” She said, “I’m not trying to get into the hospital, I’m trying to get out of it! I don’t remember where I parked either and I’m working my way down one floor at a time.”
Sometimes in life we may wonder where we are and often we wonder where we are going. Or we may think we know exactly where we are, but are mistaken.
The Navy trains pilots that the chaos of crashing into the water and overturning is completely disorienting and personnel often don’t know which way is up. Trainers say “pause, blow out a little and follow the bubbles; they always go up!”
Col. 3:1 “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is ... set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” As we choose the path of our steps each day perhaps we should ask ourselves, from time to time, “Are we looking and going up?”
- Tim Orbison