Looking this way and that

Before Moises laid a hand on the the Egyptian beating a slave,

he looked around to make sure no one was looking.

When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter,

and he became her son.

She named him Moses, “Because,” she said,

“I drew him out of the water.” 

One day, when Moses had grown up,

he went out to his people and looked on their burdens,

and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 

He looked this way and that, and seeing no one,

he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 

Ex 2.10-12

A friend of mine, when he and his family moved into the mountains near an Indian community,

spotted a woman all by herself, washing laundry in the river.

He went down to meet her, to be friendly with her.

She was timid, and stand-offish.

He introduced himself, invited the lady up to meet his wife and daughters

next time she was here at the river.

He looked this way and that, and no one else was there,

Then gently put his hand on her shoulder, to help her not be afraid.

Yet, when that lady got back to her little log house

her husband promptly beat her

because another man had touched her.

That is how my friend begin his missionary life.

Me, personally, I think looking UP is always a better option than looking this way and that.