twenty feet: A Prayer

This is a bit of a departure for me, but I just wanted to share a quick thought with you. This morning I was singing an old chorus to myself and I suddenly heard the worlds differently than I ever had before (I think because I still have that stuff from Matthew 25 fermenting in my mind). The song was Open Our Eyes Lord, and it's my prayer for today.

Open our eyes, Lord
We want to see Jesus,
To reach out and touch Him,
And say that we love Him.
Open our ears, Lord
And help us to listen.
Open our eyes, Lord
We want to see Jesus

I sang that song through a few times, thinking about each line in the light of Jesus' statement that "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." What might it mean for God to open my eyes and let me see Jesus? How I could reach out and touch him, or say that I love him? How I could listen to Jesus? I guess I'm taking an almost transubstantiational view of service. It's a little more mystical than I like to be, but it's beautiful.

1 comment:

Jacob said...: I think I've stumbled upon a paradox I hadn't noticed before. See, I buy this stuff about our actions, not our motives, being the important thing. It's very James. But then there's this seemingly opposing idea that good deeds done insincerly or with bad motives are wrong. So is it bad to hate people, and yet do good things for them? I don't know. Maybe the distinction is that in first case, you're acknowledging that your inner thoughts and motives only really affect you, and you're doing what you know you should in spite of these feelings, whereas in the second case you're trying to appear righteous, and somehow fool others, yourself or God into believeing that you are a good person.
While it's less than ideal to be hating people, I suspect it's still valid and still required of you to show love to them anyway. That's my theory.; 5:05 PM, November 15, 2004