Be thou my vision

There is an old hymn that has been popping up in my life for the past few months...or maybe I am just more conscious about when hymns pop up because of some conversations with friends about hymns having meat to them, especially when compared to some common day worship songs. Getting off topic, but ill go there real quick...the words to these popular song are often more about what I can do then who God is. It is almost like we are singing praises about ourselves instead of praising God for who He is. Don't get me wrong, I like me some Matt Redman, Jesus Culture, and such...but now I am way off subject...

So this hymn that keeps finding its way in my mind, my heart and my prayers is be though my vision.

"be though my vision, o lord of my heart, naught be all else to me, save that though art"

This first line has been my prayer often as of late actually. It is often accompanied by other words like "God I don't understand why ____________". I understand that God is in control of the craziness of my life but I also know that my Creator is just that, a creator...a creator that is so crazily creative that I cannot come up with a good word to describe it. Clever, imaginative, ingenious, originative...none of these words do it.

There is a reason I have to ask for Him to be my vision besides His creativity...I think this paragraph by M Craig Barnes explains it well...

"Because we have grown more accustomed to asking than to receiving, God's intervention would terrify us. We have adjusted to the harshness of life. We have learned that as long as life isn't tragic, we can tolerate the fact that it will be vaguely dissatisfying. But nowhere in Scripture does hope appear for those who have learned to cope by settling for a little glory. When Jesus was born, who were such people? Herod, Caesar, the innkeeper-they received no angels announcing good news of great joy. God wants to give us a vision of glory, not a little happiness. In order to receive that vision, we must abandon the deals we have cut with the world-deals that leave us with little happiness. Actually, that is probably asking too much. It is hard to abandon even hurtful relationships or unfulfilling jobs or dissatisfying lifestyles, now that we have developed such good mechanisms for getting through each day. That is why God sometimes interrupts our prayers to help us cope by presenting us with a terrifying opportunity to receive a truly glorious mission."


God is always "up to something". He is always working...but sometimes that something is so terrifyingly uncomfortable and flies directly against everything we want...Barnes later in the chapter writes this...

"Many portraits of Mary show her with a quiet, serene smile. But that is not the picture we have of her in Luke, at least not yet. At this point she has just realized that her life is out of control. How can this be? A life so well constructed has to be abandoned. A job is lost. A move has to be made. Another move. A loved one dies way to soon. These interruptions proclaim that life is not what we had hopes for. It isn't even what we had settled for. God has interrupted our ordinary expectations, as cherished as they were, to conceive something. We can't manage it. We can't even understand it. All we can do is receive it. Because if God conceived this thing, then it is holy, and it will save our lives."

The reason "be thou my vision" has become a prayer for me is because I simply can't see what God sees. The relationships I want, the financial security I think I need, the job title I long for, the mission trip I want to go on, etc, etc all cloud the way I see the world and my future. My sight is so limited. God's is not.

The hymn ends "heart of my own heart, whatever befall, still be my vision, o ruler of all"

Still be my vision, o ruler of all!