Only seeing concrete

Hunched over and clenched,
Beaten down by the struggles of life,
A lone figure walks down a street,
The battles she's faced have made her wary of looking too far ahead,
The pavement beneath her feet is all she sees,

A busy street bustles with life, 
The warm summers' breeze cools people from the hot sun,
A child licks his ice cream happily,
The music from the jazz band on the corner make people smile as they pass by

And as the band change tune, a woman walks past,
She doesn't notice the music or the child,
Staring at the ground, life has lost its colour,
All she sees is the grey street beneath her feet.

There are people who have been beaten down in this life by tough things that have happened to them. So eventually they are unable to enjoy life. The future seems hopeless, difficult and hard. So instead of looking forward to what might be, to all the possible futures that could be, people learn to look down. 

Who do you know like this? Who can only see the difficulties not the possibilities? Who is focused on what they can't do rather than what they can? Who can you help to lift up their eyes to see the world afresh? Whose life can you speak some encouragement into and give hope.

Jesus came with a message of hope. A message announcing that he wanted to set people free from the things that had beaten them down. Jesus said;

God’s Spirit is on me he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce freedom to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free (The Bible, Luke chapter 4)