Eyes Up
A while back, I was heading down the freeway here in Tucson. A message on the ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) overhead sign caught my attention. Usually these signs display common cliches that promote safe driving…kind of like this message-
Huh. What a nice and catchy resolution to use your blinker.
The one I saw said,
“Eyes up. Phones down. Just drive.”
Pretty straight forward and simple I would say, and very unremarkable.
But for some reason immediately it started me pondering.
Not only was I reminded to drive more carefully, as everyone needs to hear that, but it was a spiritual message for me that day.
“Eyes up. Phones down. Just drive.”
I thought of the propensity and habit I have developed over time to keep my eyes down watching a device to de-stress from the “to do’s” of life.
Everyone who has technology is guilty of this, the immediate impulse and dependence to use our devices to cope and escape from our uncomfortable realities.
How many times do we find ourselves constantly checking our screens instead of checking the people and needs around us?
Why are we so easily drawn away to the cyberspace abyss and not pulled into the people and real life right in our front rooms?
That drive on the freeway awakened my desire to look up, be intentional with my time, and connect and be engaged with the PEOPLE around me more than I am with my screens.
EYES UP.
DISTRACTIONS DOWN.
JUST LIVE, JUST LOVE, JUST SERVE.
