Through iconography and religious art, the saints are often depicted as looking up, and for obvious reason. They receive their strength "from above." They look first to God.

And as we read the lives of saints, we see that virtually all of them face substantial tribulation and opposition. It's through looking up that they were able to receive hope and move forward.

St. John Chrysostom says that Paul was the preeminent example of this dynamic, as his hope in heaven enabled him to have strength to press on. He writes,

Though housed in a narrow prison, Paul dwelt in heaven.

Paul was able to endure difficulty because he knew that he had a home in heaven. He didn't expect this life to fully satisfy, yet he gave this life all he had.

Is this a perspective worth cultivating in our lives? On one level, it's the only perspective that can make sense of our lives. Trouble will come whether we look for it or not. Paul shows us how to be victorious in the midst of it.

To do so, he anchored his hope in heaven in order to received strength to move forward. Let's consider a couple of passages that highlight this, and then we'll look at a first step towards appropriating this in our lives.

Anchored in heaven

Paul writes about the perspective he gained in prison, and he commends this to his readers so that in their difficulties, they too can gain light from above. Paul writes about how he cultivated joy in his eternal home when the present life was too hard:

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor 4:17-18)

When we're afflicted, what we’re going through rarely seems slight or momentary. But in the perspective of eternity, it is. Whatever we face is transient.

It's like Paul was driving a car with a divine sunroof. Although while looking out the windshield he saw driving rain and a difficult way forward, he could open up the sunroof and receive rays of light from his eternal home.

Strength to move forward

This isn’t a distant hope, because when we look up, God comes down. We feel his presence and his peace.

Consider these words from Paul:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. (2 Cor 1:4)

When we look up to God in our sufferings, we know that we're not alone, because Jesus endured even worse. In light of this, suffering has meaning when connected to the cross.

Most discouragement is rooted in feeling alone. Consciously or unconsciously, you might think "No one knows what I'm going through," or "No one even recognizes the sacrifices I've made for them." When this happens, our trouble seems meaningless.

But when we look up to God, we have an Audience of One. He’s with you in whatever you're going through, and it has meaning when offered to him.

Make it a reflex

We "look up," on one level, whenever we pray – such as during a morning prayer routine, saying the rosary, and going to Mass. These times of prayer nourish hope.

But what about the in-between time when discouragement sets in? The key is to apply what we know to our circumstances, and that calls for being very intentional in how often we look up and in how we do it.

The key here is to make this act of looking up a more common reflex in the midst of the day. Once we learn this, our more formalized times of prayer will have more power.

Not a saccharine solution

I don't intend to make this step sound artificially easy, because it doesn't stand on it's own. At times, the way before us it so difficult that merely looking up doesn't give all we need to go forward. That's why we can follow it up by giving up, which I'll explain next. Of course, this isn’t about giving up hope—quite the opposite. It’s about giving up what gets in the way of a clear path forward.