Just One Second

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

Perhaps you've heard this song by Brandon Heath on the radio before; it was quite popular a couple of years  ago. I must admit that I only kind of liked it when I first heard it. I found it quite clichéd and too easy of an out... okay, just sing about caring. Maybe it had to do with the contexts in which I always heard the song: riding in a friend's car, enjoying summer and fun and comfort... and privilege.

And why in the world just one second?

But sitting in class yesterday and then later talking with friends made me realize why he was just begging for one second.

I pray that I can view the world with spiritual eyes. I truly do. I pray that when I see the hurting and broken and those who are seemingly-fine, I pray that I would see the unseen. But sometimes, I just don't. I walk by them on my way to class. I simply watch documentaries. I may get online and donate some money here and there. But quite often, I just don't see with his eyes.

And as I sat in my two-hour lecture, where our professor told us about the "silent genocide" in Darfur I began to feel overwhelmed. He made references to the Balkan islands, off-handedly mentioned the civil war in Chad, talked some about Cambodia and Zimbabwe and I felt my head swimming. I try to stay on top of humanitarian crises, but there are too many. There are too many things messed up in the world for my heart to feel deeply for all of them. I actually can't stay updated on all of them, I can't research every past crisis and I certainly can't become intimately involved in trying to alleviate the suffering in each one. I can't do it.

And what if I really did have Jesus' eyes? What if he gave me eyes to see everything that I was missing?

I surely wouldn't be able to handle more than a second of it.

How would I handle seeing souls instead of faces? How would I manage to see hearts instead of scars? How could I see blindness in the middle of plenty? How could I see starved hearts? How could I see trapped souls? How could I see the fierce grip sin has on this world?

Would I see borders and governments and politics? Would I even care about the things that I care about now? Would I worry about class schedules and summer plans and jobs and buying that new computer? Would I complain about feeling sleepy after a filling meal? Would I cling to my money realizing that two losses were involved? The loss of those who are hurting because of my lack in giving and my personal loss at not experiencing abundant grace that comes through becoming unattached to the material things we see so clearly?

Surely, one second would be enough.

Only an infinite being with infinite capacities to love and and feel compassion could have those eyes for more than a second.

And yet, only one second would be so overwhelmingly enough to compel my soul to act and to intercede and to do for a lifetime.

Ah, give me your eyes for just one second.