Hymns: Open the Eyes of My Heart

I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the in-between hymns.

Today’s song is Open the Eyes of My Heart from 1997.

This seems very modern, but I generally categorize anything after 2000 as very modern. So, this is an oldie – or an in-betweeny 😀. Heart’s don’t really have eyes. But I think he means that we shouldn’t be satisfied with a mere intellectual belief in Jesus. We want to be deeply touched emotionally and spiritually. I remember listening to a lot of debates following the publication of God Delusion by Richard Dawkins in 2006. I enjoyed them, but sometimes that sort of thing can become so dominant that you drift away from the simple childlike faith that Jesus cherishes. And I sometimes looked down my nose at “happy clappy” Christians who had little interest in history or theology, but maybe they should look down their nose at me 😀. Maybe we should all just be more balanced.

Ephesians 1:18
¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,

Matthew 18:3-4
³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Of course, blind childlike faith in what religious or atheistic people around us believe could lead us to believe in anything. It makes sense to think it all through and examine the evidence. But it isn’t just a matter of evidence. We are called to love God. When I was young, I can’t imagine myself wanting to marry someone who wasn’t in love with me. If she merely said that it makes sense to marry me, that wouldn’t have been enough for me. And romantic love isn’t the same as love for God, but it’s often used in Scripture as a metaphor for the love of God and our love for God.

The song sounds a little like “I Still Havn’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2. Bono has a habit of launching into songs by other artists during concert. I’d like to see him launching into this one. Bono is a believer. He found what he was looking for before he wrote that song. But he was trying to make the point that he still has a long way to go before being perfect or having perfect knowledge. And maybe the spirit of this song is similar – a huble yearning to grow in grace.

Here are some other versions of the song: