Which Way is Up?

What is real for you? What’s important? Where are you heading in life?

Pilots say that when you’re flying you can lose your sense of what is up and what is down. In murky water, scuba divers have mistaken the bottom for the surface. Skiers buried in avalanches have thought that they were digging through the snow toward the sky only to strike dirt and rock.

Literally, none of these people know which way is up. They have at least momentarily lost the defining markers for spatial orientation: up and down. And in each case, such disorientation can have life and death consequences.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Figuratively, we say that someone doesn’t know which way is up when they seem confused, disoriented, or simply struggling with a task that exceeds their abilities. They have lost the principles that guide and anchor their lives.

“Up,” in this case, does not refer to one’s spatial orientation. Instead, it refers to one’s sense of what’s real, what’s important, and where we’re heading in life. In other words, knowing what’s up means that we are spiritual…