Give Me Your Eyes...

I truly have the utmost desire to lay down my life for God & do EXACTLY what He has for me to do.  I wish to be a servant to Him, and only Him.  I wish I had His eyes, His ears, His hands….His heart.  Unfortunately, because of my sin, I slip, and forget to really pay attention to what he places in front of me.

 This song by Brandon Heath called Give Me Your Eyes inspires me to pray for this….

 

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 top

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

Ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

 

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?

 

I’ve been there a million times

A couple of million eyes

Just moving past me 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 along

 When I hear this song play, I picture myself like Jesus walking down the street being able to see into people's souls.  Knowing without them speaking what it is they're going through.  I picture being able to hear their unspoken words, and feeling myself all the hurt they have inside. 

It hurts me to think..How many times have I just ignored someone who’s been deeply hurt and desperate to talk to someone because I was completely oblivious? How many times did I retaliate because someone “treated me wrong.” When there’s a story that goes along with why they “treated you wrong” in the first place, and they just need someone to respond to them in a loving way, How many times have I been so involved in my work that I failed to talk to a co-worker once throughout the day, How many times have I passed the person on the side of the road begging for money and didn’t even notice them?

 

One thing that I can say I didn’t always understand, but now FULLY understand is that people are who they are because of their past, what they’ve been through.  Someone isn’t just rude to you at the checkout counter because they want to be.  People aren’t homeless because they want to be.  People aren’t shy because they want to be.  We are all humans, we all have a story that brings us to who we are today.  Abuse, Neglect, Poverty, Divorce, Racism, Illness, War, Loss of Job, Death, When you find out someone’s story, you will be amazed at how COMPLETELY different you will view them. I hope and pray that I would be able to be still & get to know those stories.  I want to wake up from this fog that I've been in most of my life and be purposeful with every interaction that God places before me.  I am not guaranteed tomorrow, so why wait until it's too late? 

Staff Emergency!!

At Fairview, the hospital of my employment, we have to carry around pagers.  I have a love/hate relationship with them.  They're informative and our job would be more difficult without them, but sometimes you just want to throw it against a wall and then stomp on it 50 times until it's unrecognizable OR throw it out the window into the Mississippi never to be found again.  Whenever a patient's call light goes off, the HUC (secretary)  will usually answer the light at the desk, find out what the patient wants, and then text page the Nurse or Nursing Assistant with what the patient needs.  We also get pages for phone calls, when the Dr's are ready for rounds, when a family member or random Dr is at the desk to speak to you, when the trays have arrived, and we even have a page to remind us to turn our pagers in at the end of the day.  If the page isn't answered within a certain amount of time, which does happen-if you're in the middle of a sterile dressing change, or just plain busy with a patient...but say you got stuck in one of those rooms, and one of your other pages isn't being answered after a certain amount of time your pager will just vibrate non-stop until it gets answered.  That's about the time when I envision myself pulling one of the above tricks on my beeper.  

Anyway, the root of all this nonsense, is located in the patients room.  They have a call light on their bed that they push to let someone know they need something.  When one goes to answer the light, there is a button on the wall to turn the call light off for that room.  There also lies another button right next to it that you would push if you came across an emergency situation.  In that case, everyone gets a page saying EMERGENCY RM. 510.  And you know how when there's a storm and one of those pages will come on over the radio saying "The National Weather Service has now issued a thunderstorm warning for the following counties..." A voice as such comes over the loudspeaker saying "STAFF EMERGENCY......STAFF EMERGENCY....STAFF EMERGENCY...." When I get a page as such, or hear that overhead, my reaction is my heart about drops to my stomach, my eyes become very wide open, and I get tense, and have thoughts racing in my brain.  Meanwhile, everyone comes running from multiple directions, nurses are peaking their head out of rooms to see if it's actually an emergency.....This happens at least once a shift....luckily not because there's actually an emergency, but because someone from housekeeping, or a patient or family member decided to push the wrong button.  The reaction I get to the above, I've realized has become a learned response.  Now, anytime I hear something remotely resembling the word staff, or a voice that sounds similar even when I'm not at work, my heart drops to my stomach, i become tense, and my eyes become wide open. Once I remind myself I'm not actually at work, I can breathe, but not a fun reaction to have when you're supposedly resting in Barnes & Noble reading a good book.  So, word to the wise, if you're ever visiting someone in the hospital...stay away from all buttons or you could create unnecessary strain or your poor nurses heart:)  

PDA in Church? Whaa??

So..you know those couples that are walking down the street and they can't keep their hands off eachother?? They either have their arms around eachother's waist, or one hand in the others back pocket...you know what i mean, it's like they're going to get lost if they aren't constantly attached to the other..well anywho, saw one of those the other day....although I didn't see them out in the streets....they were sitting in front of us in church.... I would guess they were maybe Freshman in high school.  The guy was constantly whispering in the girls ear, they were like groping eachothers arms, giving hand massages, holding both hands, and they even kissed once or twice....ok, so do whatever on your own time, but please, please don't do this in church...extremely distracting for one, and definitely not appropriate during church let alone anywhere else at that age.  What made the situation from annoying to funny however was the fact that there was a "grandma" sitting right next to the guy who kept doing double takes of their hands and by the looks on her eyes I know if she wasn't in church her jaw would have dropped to the floor.  She kept looking at the guys face too to try to get him to see her disapproval...but, he apparently didn't notice.  Just got me thinking about relationships and the importance of keeping them pure.  I'm not being judgmental at all because I know I'm not a perfect example, but just for discussion purposes I'll continue with my thoughts.  Do you really know what you want in a guy at that age, let alone really know yourself?? I know when I was that age even though I was a believer, I was more into what I was going to wear to school to make me look attractive, how much hair spray it was going to take to keep my hair perfectly curled, how many guys you could get to say hi to you in passing. I could've cared less whether they were a church-goer, or what their goals in life were or what they were passionate about. Having a niece in this day in age, or the thought of having a kid one day of my own knowing what went on in high school several years ago, and what it could be like when they go through those experiences is one big scary thought..especially with what society is like today..when we were growing up the popular shows were Saved by the Bell, and Full House....very family friendly shows...you don't really see that so much anymore, and all the songs on the radio now are horrendous!!!  Check this out...this is just one of the many songs on the "hit" station today that teenagers are being exposed to on a daily basis. 

    I'll take you home if you don't leave me at the front door.

    Your body is cold but girl we're gettin warm

    And I was thinking of ways I could get inside.

    Tonight you're falling in love, let me go now. 

    This feeling is tearin me up, here we go now. 

    Now if she does it like this, will you do it like that? 

    If she touches you like this, will you touch her like that?

    If she moves like this, will you move it like that? 

    Come on shake, shake, shake-shake-it. 

    Your lips tremble but your eyes are in a straight stare, 

    We're on the bed, but your clothes are laying right there, 

    And i was thinking of places I could hide.

    Tonight you're falling in love, let me go now. 

    This feeling is tearin me up, here we go now. 

    I saw you dancing and couldn't get you off my mind.

    I could tell that you could tell that I was taking my time.

    But I was thinking of ways to get you staying the night.

    Your body's shaking, so tell me off so i can turn off the lights...

...and it goes on from there....Keep in mind I tried to find one of the least provocative of lyrics to share with you.  

And we wonder why the rate of teen pregnancies is sky-rocketing...hmmmm.....

As Christians, and even for non-Christians, I think it is important to be aware of what we are feeding our minds and spirits. While it's very easy to conform to the standards of the world, God's word should have authority in our lives. God does not give instruction to be cruel, but rather for protection of hurt and disappointment.  We have to remember that our bodies don't belong to us, but rather belong to God and we should protect his creation in order to be who he wants us to be.  I pray frequently for the future protection of our loved young ones, and for positive influences in their lives who will educate them on getting to know themselves & God before pursuing things or people that will only lead them astray.