Give Me Your Eyes

“Give me Your eyes for just one second

Give me Your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me Your love for humanity

Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me Your eyes so I can see”

I knew it in an instant.  The minute that Jason and Ryan began reporting on South Africa and the mission trips that would follow; I knew that the Holy Spirit was leading me to go.  This calling was not emotional (like I have felt on every other mission trip that I have been on), yet it was just a matter of fact.  The Holy Spirit was prompting me, and I would obey.

We were to go teach refugee Somalian women English so they can better thrive in South Africa.  I teach every day so was not thrilled about teaching my entire Spring Break.  I would miss my time off with my boys.  The travel would be long and tedious, and I do not naturally have a longing to visit South Africa.

I heard Brandon Heath’s song, “Give me Your Eyes”, multiple times before I left for my trip.  I did not think anything about it until we began our work with the Muslim ladies in South Africa.  Generally speaking, this is a harsh culture with a tendency for abrasive personalities.  In our orientation, Joe explained “they are hard to love, but Jesus loves them.  And they are going to hell if we do not share and show the love of Christ to them.”  As soon as he spoke those words, I knew what my lesson-learned would be from this trip: that I should seek for my heart to cry out the words of this song.  I was to be challenged to see these people, all people, through Jesus’ eyes.  What a simple revelation and prayer.  Every morning my earnest prayer would be that I would be able to love and have a heart for these precious women as Jesus does.  We spent time teaching, loving on, listening to, building up, and praying for these women whose stories and life experiences are indescribably difficult.  Through our time spent together and by the grace of God, I developed a love and burden for reaching these special ladies.

As it always does, my life lesson that I learned on my mission trip has crossed over into my daily life.  God has blessed me with a huge mission field.  My daily prayer now is that I would see each student with Jesus’ eyes and give me a heart and love for all of humanity.

If your prayer is to have a love and burden for all of humanity, then your life purpose and view will change instantly.  I have felt the burden and urgency to be Christ to all lost people.  The Somalians, my students, and any people that I come into contact with (even the ones that are hard to love) need to feel the unconditional love of Christ from me.

Lord, I pray that you give me your love for humanity, the broken-hearted, and the forgotten.  Amen.