Keep Your Head Up

By Mark M. Yarbrough

[Mark M. Yarbrough became President, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas, July 1, 2020.]

“Twalking” is a significant problem and a developing word.[1] It references what happens when mobile device users attempt to tweet, text, or talk while walking; hence “twalking.” Don’t laugh. You know you’ve participated and experienced the ramifications of this seemingly benign behavior even if just around your home or office.

While we are prone to dismiss the severity of this phenomenon, it’s a real and present danger. According to Dr. Alan Hilibrand, chair of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Communications Cabinet, “the number of injuries to pedestrians using their phones has more than doubled since 2004, and surveys have shown that 60% of pedestrians are distracted by other activities while walking.”[2] In many cases, these injuries were severe—even resulting in death. In the United States, it is such a serious issue that lawmakers feel the need to address it.[3]

Did you know that in some cities walking and texting are illegal? Places like Honolulu, Hawaii, Rexburg, Idaho, and Montclair, California have banned distracting walking due to the rise in pedestrian injuries. It’s a global problem too.[4] Some cities, such as Manchester, in the United Kingdom, have painted specific walking lanes for “phone zombies” and have placed padded poles, guardrails, and even in-ground lights to grab the attention of distracted pedestrians.

And most of the problems would be avoided if people just kept their heads up. It’s that simple.

Spiritual Twalking

While the pitfalls and problems of twalking are real, “spiritual twalking” presents an equally clear and present danger. Unfortunately, many believers today live with their heads down as opposed to up. Why? Because we get weighted down by the stuff of earth.

Often social agendas sensationalize and drive much of the news, social media, and political propaganda we consume. These outlets compete for our allegiance and continually encourage us to gaze at things below, as opposed to things above. And I think we are paying the price. True, we certainly have the responsibility to engage in public discourse, both as people who make and are made by culture and as believers who are specifically called to be salt and light.[5] But when we fixate on every dispute and feel obliged to provide our limited opinions on the latest crisis in this fallen world, we forget a prominent mandate of Scripture from Colossians and the hope that it offers. For when Christ-followers fail to look up, we frequently fall down; this is the result of spiritual twalking.

Remember To Look Up

Paul calls believers to look up to gain clarity while living below. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says in Colossians 3:1–2, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”[6]

Paul’s charge, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, is clear and pointed. He encourages us to remember something vital to life today and then challenges us to act on that remembrance.

First, the apostle encourages believers to remember that we “have been raised with Christ.” He begins the discussion in 2:12–13 when he recalls that we were buried with Christ and thus dead to sin. And being buried means death to the belief system of the world (2:20). With that reality in mind, Paul now stresses the totality of the gospel: death, burial, and resurrection. Our being raised with Christ is sure. The picture is strong. God sits on his throne, and the exalted Christ sits to his right in the position of power, prominence, and protection. As Dunn states,

The consequences for the Christian perspective are thus also clear. If Jesus, the Christ, is so highly favored. If we acknowledge Him to be God’s ‘righthand man,’ with all the power and authority to effect God’s will and to protect his own, which is implicit in that claim, then Christian life should be entirely oriented by reference to this Christ.[7]

Second, the reality of being raised with Christ challenges us to act on that remembrance and to do so regularly. Did you note that two times in this brief passage, Paul calls us to look up? In Colossians 3:1, the charge is to “set your hearts on things above.” In referencing our hearts, Paul speaks to our desires, which in light of being united with the risen Savior, are now bent toward heaven. God transforms us through our union with him. This relationship changes our moral viewpoint, which should be from a position of redemption and not driven from earthly patterns.

In Colossians 3:2, Paul repeats the charge with a twist. We are to set our minds on things above. This second command addresses our thoughts. It implies assessing the time and passion we dedicate to our thinking and the actions that follow from those thoughts. To avoid confusion, Paul states we are to engage our minds on “things above” (τὰ ἄνω), not on “earthly things” (τὰ ἐπίγεια), that is, things of the world. The contrast to the first admonition is that our focus should be on what is up (heaven) and explicitly not down (earth).

Here, as much as anywhere, the twofold perspective of believers appears. They lived in two domains: the fallen order and the redeemed order, a division Paul had already used in 1:15–20. While being a part of the fallen order, they were not to let that environment occupy their thoughts and minds. Their values were to be different.[8]

Invasive Action to Avoid Spiritual Twalking

Need a dose of encouragement today? Take heart, my friends. God’s got this. Jesus has been exalted, and we are united with him by grace through faith. Our priorities in engaging one another in the world are fundamentally shaped by the facts that God has raised us with Christ, and that Christ is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

When the world around us falls apart and human systems come crashing down, we stand with the resurrected Savior! As Barclay aptly states, “From now on the Christian will see everything in the light and against the background of eternity. He will no longer live as if this world was all that mattered; he will see this world against the background of the larger world of eternity.”[9] Yes, remembering that reality makes a difference today, in the here and now. For when facing the problems of the world, including plagues, pestilence, violence, injustice, social wrongs, and faulty political systems, we know the risen Lord is Lord over all. He has a plan that he is working to his ends. For at that time, all wrongs will be made right; sin will be no more, and God’s rule, through his appointed Christ, will be made manifest in heaven and on the recreated earth. Despite what our eyes see, faith leads us to trust in him even when the present circumstances and pundits say it is foolish.

Does that mean we should not be active in addressing the problems of the world? By no means. It means our thoughts and actions should be heaven-centric as we do it. That leads us to the ramifications of Paul’s charge to act by looking up. We begin by assessing what we fixate our hearts and minds on and respond accordingly. For some, looking up requires significant adjustments to the ways we interact in the public square. For others, looking up means we need to spend more time studying and applying the Word to our lives than on conforming to the narrative of the world. For others still, looking up means living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed as opposed to defaulting to earthly patterns of discourse that, although promising good, will ultimately fail. What’s true for us all is the constant need to purge ourselves of the input of the world and refill our hearts and minds with the things of God. That is why Paul admonishes believers in Rome not to conform to the world but instead renew minds (Rom 12:1–2). The benefits of doing so are immense. When we do, we will remember that God is sovereign, our salvation is secure, and that the best is yet to come.

That gives me hope when it all seems to be falling apart.

Come on, Christ-followers, we can do this. Let’s stop spiritual twalking. Keep your focus on things above. It makes all the difference in (and for) the world. Keep your head up.

Notes

1. “Twalking,” Urban Dictionary, accessed August 30, 2020, https://www.urban-dictionary.com/define.php?term=Twalking.
2. “Distracted Walking,” OrthoInfo, accessed August 31, 2020, https://ortho-info.aaos.org/en/staying-healthy/distracted-walking.
3. Natalie Proulx, “Texting While Walking,” The New York Times, accessed August 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/learning/texting-while-walking.html.
4. Harry Rosehill, “The Dangers of Walking While Looking at Your Phone,” Londonist, accessed August 30, 2020, https://londonist.com/london/technology/walking-while-looking-at-your-phone.
5. Andy Crouch, Culture Making (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008).
6. The New International Version (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011).
7. James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 205.
8. Richard R. Melick, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1991), 281–82.
9. William Barclay, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, The Daily Study Bible series, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1963), 177.