Give Me Your Eyes

I went to Andrew Patterson's Behold the Lamb of God Tour Monday night. I did not really know what it was but had heard from a few people that it was really good so I figured why not. I don't really go to concerts that much so it was fun to do something different.

The Behold the Lamb of God story of songs was very powerful, I rushed home and got the album on iTunes. I highly recommend it. Good stuff! But the first part of the program each of the very talented musicians performed two of their own songs from their personal albums. They also talked about what their inspiration was for the song before they sang it so that was a bonus!

Although I've heard Brandon Heath's song, Give Me Your Eyes, on the radio before, somehow I think I missed the lyrics. Hearing and seeing him perform it in person, though, made me just love the song and really and truly want His eyes. So this song is my prayer!

Give Me Your Eyes

Brandon Heath, Jason Ingram

"I wrote a lot of songs for this new record. 'Give Me Your Eyes' was one of the first that really stuck out. I co-wrote it with Jason Ingram, and musically, it has a hip-hop flavor to it. The song was inspired from the idea that every once in a while, God gives us His eyes. You tend to see a lot of different kinds of people in places like airports. Sometimes, usually only for a few moments, I feel like God gives me true compassion for those people around me. I think that the longer I get to know the character of Jesus, the more compassion I personally have for others. 'Give Me Your Eyes' is saying; 'Jesus give me your eyes so that I can see people the way you see people, so I can love people the way you love people.' One of the core goals of my ministry is focused on striking up conversations about social injustices around the world and being a voice for those who have often been silenced by poverty or lack of influence. I want to challenge people more. 'Give Me Your Eyes' does that. It is one thing to have compassion and quite another to act on it. Most times, it starts with the people around you."

Look down from a broken sky

Traced out by the city lights

My world from a mile high

Best seat in the house tonight

Touch down on the cold black top

Hold on for the sudden stop

Breath 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 you heart for the ones 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

Too ashamed to tell his wife

He's out of work, He's buying time

I've been here a million times

A couple of million eyes

Just move and pass me by

I swear I never thought that I was wrong

I need a second glance

Give me a second chance

To see the way you've seen the people all along

2008 Essential Music / Sitka 6 Music (ASCAP). All rights admin. by Sony/ATV Tunes LLC (ASCAP). / Peertunes Ltd (SEASAC) Grange Hill Music (SEASAC) Windsor Way Music (SEASAC) Grange Hill Music and Windsor Way music administered by Peertunes Ltd.

 
Lord, give me Your eyes!

Why Wait To Go Radical Until 2010....

When there are 26,000 children dying EVERY SINGLE DAY from starvation or preventable diseases?

December is always a financially stressful month for me, as for many. Christmas shopping isn't the only reason for me, though. There's this pesty Rocky Ridge fire dues that is due every December 31st that increases by like $50 every year. You would think by now a financial planner would put money aside throughout the year for December expenses. Of course, I don't always practice but I preach. This December has been especially stressful with added car expenses, too. God proved to me, once again, though, that He will always provide. It was something small, but yet came at just the right now...

The background is that I re-financed my mortgage back in February when interest rates came down significantly. One day this month I was looking through my accounts and saw something that said, "Special District."  I had never seen that charge come up on any of my accounts so at first I was alarmed. Then I noticed it was for the same amount that my fire dues were. I didn't want to get too excited, so I  researched a little further on this "Special District" charge. I was able to confirm that my new mortgage company paid the fire dues from my escrow account!!! Wow, thank you God, for reminding me not to stress out!

I was planning to sponsor a child after the holidays so I had been spending a good deal of time reseraching two great organizations, Compassion International and World Vision. When  this happened, though, I immediately logged on and picked my child to sponsor instead of waiting until the new year. I knew that God had provided a way for me to have a less stressful December and I wanted to make a difference in someone else's life, too. I thank God for allowing me the opportunity to provide for a better future for sweet little Judele in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa.

Judele is 8 years old. She has 3 sisters and 1 brother. Her mother works as a market vendor but struggles to provide for her family. Judele and her family live in a community that is severely affected by the HIV and AIDS crisis. Only 46% of the people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have access to safe water. Judele is not in school at this time. Her not being in school kind of alarmed me at first until I got more information on where she lives. Only 52% of kids in her country are enrolled in primary school and 48% of Congolese children do not even have access to schools or education of any sort. Many have to work on farms or anywhere else they can find work to generate income for their families. Just what kind of income are their families earning that is worth the sacrifice of an education? The average annual income in her country is $103.

Can you imagine not having access to an education, clean water or working for $103 A YEAR????? I'm guessing your answer is no because we live in America where 92% of children are enrolled in school, 100% of us have access to clean water and the average annual income is $41,400.

I knew we had it better than most, but it's still mind boggling to me to know that 26,000 Talla and Brias are dying from preventible reasons. Not gangs, not violence, not cigarettes, not obesity. They are dying because they do not have ACCESS to the resources that we so quickly take for granted such as clean water, food and vaccinations. So why would I want to wait until next year to provide a better life for a child when she might not even make it another day?

For less than what I feed my DOGS for a month I can provide so much more than just food for her. I have the privellage to not only provide her for financially, but I get to encourage her, uplift her, pray for her, and see God work in her life! I have the opportunity to make sure than 1 less child is dying from starvation or preventible diseases today. God is good! But there are so many other children waiting for you to adopt them, too! I challenge you to go through the pictures on World Vision or Compassion's website and pick out the child whose life you are going to save! If you don't save them, who will?

What Going "Radical" Means to Me

God has really  been working in my life ever since I started attending the Church at Brook Hills. So many people have told me how much they have enjoyed getting to see my mature over the past year and I can't help but think, wow, how bad was I? Because according to the world's standards I thought I was doing pretty good. The more I've grown closer to God this year, though, the more I realize how low of a priority He has been in my life all these years. I also realize that Satan encourages us to compare ourselves to the world's standards rather than the standards set for us by Scripture.

I made a commitment on November 15, 2009, along with many members of my faith family to take on this Radical Experiment.I pray that through this "experiment" that I will know God deeper than I ever have, that my heart will become more like His, that I will truly care for orphans and widows, that I will be obedient to His command and spread the gospel to the nations, that I will make Him a part of every area of my life, and that by sharing my journey with you that your life will be radically changed, as well.

So, for the first part of the Radical Experiment, I am praying for the nations using the tool, Operation World. I am excited about this mainly for two reasons. First, because selfishly I want to become more educated about geography and general information about other countries (I didn't pay much attention in school). Second, I believe we underestimate the power of prayer and I look forward to seeing how God works in the countries that we spend focused time in pray for. I pray that as God does His work in these areas that others may believe in His power and come to faith in Christ.

The second part of going radical, reading through the entire Bible, is especially important to me. Growing up as a PK I think I felt like if I had a question about the Bible I could always just go to my dad, but other than that I was saved, so that was all that mattered. Now I believe that reading the Bible is not just about knowing factual information, it's about getting to know God and I am excited to start getting to know Him more! I also think it is so amazing that so many people are going to be reading the same pages each day that I am reading so I have accountability. I am also thankful that we will have a reading "plan" because I like structure!

The third part, I am sacrificing my money for a specific purpose. On a church level, I love, and am excited about, the testimony that this will be to other churches and to those in our community. On a personal level, I've been racking my brain to come up with ways to do this on such limited resources and with a good bit of debt. It's humbling to go through the process of determining what can be cut from your budget to care for urgent needs across the world. More to come on that!

Fourth, I am giving 2% of my time in another context spreading the gospel. This is another exciting challenge for me this coming year because I have NEVER been on a mission trip. You probably couldn't have paid me to use my vacation time for missions, but slowly but surely, over the past several months I have been attending Brook Hills I have come to the realization that Jesus COMMANDED us to go and make disciples of all nations. I, like many, many other Christians, have always thought that missions were for a select group of people that God "calls." I've fought the truth long enough and am SOOO excited that I am going to go on my first mission trip in Summer 2010!!!

Lastly, I am commiting my life to a mulitplying community. I have been involved in quite a few ministires over the past year or so, but I have not been 100% committed to a weekly small group. I've found a great group of people, but logisticially the time and location of the small group meeting is not working out for me so I pray that in January God will lead me to the group He wants me to be a part of, while continuing to serve in the other great ministries I am already a part of.

So now that you know what I commited to for 2010 and beyond (as Buzz Lightyear would say), please please, please pray for me, encourage me, and keep me accountable as I take on this challenge set before me! If you are going through the Radical Experiment, too, I would love to hear about your journey, as well!

What is Radical?

Well, first let me go ahead and address the title of the blog....I know "Gone Radical" isn't proper English, but thankfully this is not a college paper thats going to be graded, thankfully those days are behind me. You will find that I make grammetical errors frequently, but I hope that you can see past that when reading this. As I was thinking about what I wanted the title to be, for some reason Alan Jackson's song, "Gone Country" came to mind, I don't even listen to country music that much so I'm not sure why this song came to mind but it works. The line in the chorus about going back to her roots is especially applicable to my blog. When people read this I want them to say, "She's gone radical, back to her roots!" I love the "There she goes" part, too. So here I go!!!!

What is Radical? Well, for the coming year it is five things. Taken directly from the Radical Website these five things are:

•First, we want to pray for the entire world. Through a prayer emphasis that revolves around Operation World, we want to pray individually and as a faith family for the entire world over the course of the year. We want to give ourselves to strategic prayer and fasting emphases as a church through our worship gatherings, small groups, and many other avenues.

•Second, we want to read through the entire Word. Beginning in January, we are going to walk through the story of Scripture together day-by-day, week-by-week, and month-by-month. We are going to participate in daily Bible readings and weekly worship gatherings, family worship times, and small group discussions that revolve around what we are reading in Scripture. We want to know God fully and love God wholly through a deep knowledge of His Word.

•Third, we want to sacrifice our money for a specific purpose. As a church, we are going to set a cap on our spending at the most basic level we can in order to free up as many of our resources as possible for the sake of urgent spiritual and physical need in the world. At the same time, we as individuals and families across the church are going to radically minimize our spending on ourselves by setting a cap on our lifestyles so that we are free to give away everything above that cap during the year (no matter how small or large) for the sake of the glory of Christ in His church, among the lost, and among the poor.

•Fourth, we want to give our time in another context. As we give 98% of our time next year to making disciples right here where we live in Birmingham, we want to spend 2% of our time (about a week) spreading the Gospel outside of Birmingham. We're trusting that when we give 2% of our time in another context, it will radically transform the 98% of our time that we spend in this context!

•Finally, we want to commit our lives to a multiplying community. Fundamentally, this involves a wholehearted commitment to the local church of which we are a part. But even deeper, we want to commit our lives to a small group of believers that is intentionally sharing, showing, and teaching the Word while serving the world together. Together, we want to lock arms to spread the Gospel and glory of Christ from Birmingham to the ends of the earth.

I hope you will be encouraged by my radical journey and I pray that it will challenge you to live a radical life for Christ, as well!

Next Post is going to be about what this means to me personally!