I was driving to work today and heard this song on KLOVE. I have always loved it but I was particularly moved by it in light of a talk I am doing on Saturday and a conversation I had this week with someone. They were talking about how you just never know how bad people are hurting. We all walk around with smiles on our faces, mostly because we have to in order to get thru the day. But we never know what’s going on when our neighbor closes their door. Are they struggling with grief that we don’t know about? Maybe they are recovering from an affair. Maybe they are worrying about losing their job.
It’s easy to get lost in our day to day and not be connected with what may be going on with people that we actually care about. This song talks about God giving us eyes so we can see people the way He does. I love how he speaks about having a love for humanity. We all need that, to love people because they are human.
I am privileged every day to have people show me their brokenness so they can work on it. But for those of you who aren’t therapists, you may have to look harder. You may want to ask God to help you see people as He does, so you can see their brokenness and be there for them thru prayer or an encouraging word.
Please take a moment to really let these words sink in your heart. If you have a few minutes, download the song off of itunes. It’s one you will want to keep. It even has a great beat!
“Give Me Your Eyes” by Brandon Heath
Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black tar
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breathe in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared?
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 one’s forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide what?s underneath
There’s a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
He’s out of work, he’s buying time
All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared?
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 one’s forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I’ve been there a million times
A couple of million eyes just moving past me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well, I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way You see the people all alone
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 one’s forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
That I keep missing
Give me Your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach?
Give me Your heart for the one’s forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
*Natalie Chandler, MA, LMHC is a therapist at Imagine Hope Counseling Group. Natalie enjoys doing marriage counseling, individual counseling, and couples counseling. We also specialize in family counseling, child, and adolescent counseling. Imagine Hope serves the Indianapolis area including the surrounding areas of Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Westfield, and Zionsville
Had never heard of the song before… makes me think of the poem “Please Hear What I’m Not Saying”. Below is the version I have in a book that is marked Anonymous, but also found what might be an earlier version here:
http://www.poetrybycharlescfinn.com/pleasehear.html
Please Hear What I’m Not Saying
Don’t be fooled by me.
Don’t be fooled by the face I wear
for I wear a mask. I wear a thousand masks,
Masks that I’m afraid to take off,
and none of them are me.
Pretending is an art that’s second nature to me,
but don’t be fooled,
I give you the impression that I’m secure,
that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well
as without,
that confidence is my name and coolness my game,
that the water’s calm and I’m in command
and that I need no one,
but don’t believe me.
My surface may seem smooth but my surface is my mask,
My very and ever concealing mask.
Beneath it dwells the real me.
In confusion and fear
In loneliness.
But I hide this. I don’t want anybody to know it.
I panic at the thought of my weakness and the fear of being exposed.
That’s why I frantically create a mask to hide behind,
a nonchalant sophisticated facade,
to help me pretend,
to shield me from the glance that knows.
But such a glance is precisely my salvation
My only salvation.
and I know it, that is, if it is followed by acceptance.
if it is followed by love,
It’s the only thing that can liberate me
From myself,
From my self-built prison walls,
From the barriers that I so painstakingly erect.
It’s the only thing that will assure me of what I can’t assure myself,
That I’m really worth something.
But I don’t tell you this.
I don’t dare to.
I’m afraid to.
I’m afraid that your glance will not be followed by acceptance,
I’m afraid that your glance will not be followed by love.
I’m afraid that you will think less of me,
That you’ll laugh,
And your laugh would kill me.
I’m afraid down deep that I’m nothing and just no good,
and that you will see this and reject me.
So I play my game.
With the facade of assurance without,
And a trembling child within.
And so begins the parade of masks, the glittering
But empty parade of masks.
And my life becomes a front.
I idly chatter to you in the suave tones of surface talk.
I tell you everything that’s really nothing,
and nothing that is everything,
Of what’s crying within me.
So when I’m going through my routine
Do not be fooled by what I’m saying.
Please listen carefully, and
Try to hear what I’m not saying,
And what I’d like to be able to say,
What for survival I need to say,
But what I can’t say.
Honestly,
I dislike the superficial game I’m playing, the superficial
Phony game.
I’d really like to be genuine and spontaneous,
And me,
But you’ve got to hold out your hand,
Even when that is the last thing I seem to want, or need
Only you can wipe away from my eyes that blank stare
Of the breathing dead.
Only you can call me into aliveness.
Each time you’re kind, gentle, and encouraging,
Each time you’re soft and understanding because you really care,
My heart begins to grow wings–
Very small wings,
But wings.
With your sympathy and sensitivity, and your power of understanding.
You can breathe life into me.
I want you to know that.
I want you to know how important you are to me,
How you can be a creator of the person that is me,
If you choose to.
Please choose to.
You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble,
You alone can remove my mask,
You alone can release me from my show world of panic and
uncertainty,
From my lonely prison,
So don’t pass me by.
It will not be easy for you.
A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.
The nearer your approach to me, the blinder I strike back.
It’s irrational, but despite what the books say about me
I’m irrational.
But I am told that love is stronger than strong walls
In this lies my hope.
My only hope.
Please try to beat down those walls with firm hands but with gentle hands
For a child is very sensitive.
Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
I pass you on the street.
I am sitting beside you.
I am every boy and girl,
Every man and woman you meet.
~ Anonymous