My Eyes, Their Eyes

I lift my eyes up,

Unto the mountains,

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from You,
Maker of heaven,

Creator of the earth.

Oh how I need You Lord,
You are my only hope,
You’re my only prayer.
So I will wait for You,
To come and rescue me,
Come and give me life.

We sang this song the other day with the rescued girls before starting school.  Usually we start off the day with a Bible study, prayer, and a couple of worship songs, but usually all of that is in Hindi.  On this specific day though, we sang "I Lift My Eyes Up," and we did so in English.  As we were singing I had a bit of an awakening.  I thought about what these lyrics mean for American Christians compared to what these lyrics mean for a third world Christian, or even more specific, the girls that were sitting right in front of me.

For an American Christian I can see it being, "I need you, Lord...I need you to answer me about which step to take next.  I need you to give me grace when I mess up.  I need you for some sort of physical comfort or pleasure."  Don't get me wrong, these are legit prayers and God hears them just as much as the next prayer, but I'm sure that while asking God for help a lot of the "Western" plea tends to be a bit selfish (not all the time, but I can definitely see it happening quite a bit).  

Then I think of the girls that I see everyday who were rescued out of the sex trade industry.  What does it mean for them when they sing, "Oh how I need you Lord, you are my only hope, you are my only prayer.  So I will wait for you, to come and rescue me, to come and give me life."  Asking God for hope, realizing that He is the only prayer they have, waiting for Him to come and rescue them out of the Hell that they lived in.  How different is that prayer from the prayer we lift up as we sing this song?  

It breaks my heart for sure.  It also makes me reevaluate my life as I bring myself before God, realizing that my "problems," may not really be something to get worked up about.  Sure God hears my cry no matter how petty it may be, but again, it makes me think and if that's all it does, that's great.

Hakuna Matata