Ephphatha

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 your heart for the one's 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 by
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 alone

This Brandon Heath song has been a favorite for awhile... but I feel like even though I say this is what I want- this is what I pray for, I dont really realise what it means...

Ephphatha- it means "Be Opened," and was the phrase Jesus spoke when He healed the deaf-mute man- in the same way the deaf man was opened physically, we need Ephphatha- for Jesus to open our eyes, our hearts to the ones around us.. I felt like that was happening today- I was oddly aware of things going on around me- and was blessed (if you can call it that) to have my heart broken several times today... do we realise that when we ask for His heart it may hurt a bit?

First it happened at Staples, my friend and I had been running some errands and had just survived a horrible Best Buy experience. (Now I'm patient with retail and service industry... I've been there- but I also notice the difference between being spread too thin and just being ignored) Anyhow, I will admit, while I stood there with 3 routers and couldn't get anyone to even ask if I needed help, and then proceeded to approach someone, who then informed us he could be with us in a few minutes (after he finished talking to his girlfriend) I was starting to lose patience... I made the rude under my breath comments and was probably less than cheerful at the checkout, but then we walked into Staples- where it was completely the opposite, people asked if they could help us find things, and then when we stood in line a guy offered to check us out- trying to help get us out faster- he then proceeds to go through the retail schpeals, offering batteries at this deal with this coupon and asking if we needed any of some other featured item. In the midst of this one of our purchases was rang up twice- a fixible problem, but in response my friend made a comment about how "If he wasn't so busy trying to sell us a bunch of stuff and paying attention to what he was doing that wouldn't have happened" And then I lost it. It wasn't so much the incident as it was the concept. Who is this man? He looked about 70... a 70 year old man working retail hasn't been able to retire- he has a story... and for some reason I hurt for him. I just realised how aware we need to be of those little things we say and do- we are capable of making or breaking someones day with simple words... there are people out there today who didn't once feel loved, didn't once feel appreciated, didnt once feel like anyone really saw them. Every single interaction we have with people is a chance to be Jesus to them- and we may be the only Jesus they ever see. What do they see when they look at me?

Then it was at work, a guy came in with a free pizza card and wanted to order a togo pizza- just one, and it was another one of those moments, I saw him and my heart ached, fairly sure he was homeless, someone had probably handed him the card, maybe they had nothing else to give- I wish I could know what story was underneath.

And then I got the Christmas gift- one of my coworkers slipped an envelope of money in my bucket, my sluething skills found out who it was, and to be perfectly honest- I wasn't expecting it... people are suprising, and most of the time we dont really know them, not like we think we do. Thing is, he took time to see me, see my needs, and that probably means more to me than the money did. I've been frustrated lately, really wanting to be home for Christmas, but after paying off water, electric, and other fun stuff it just wasn't looking feasible... I've been trying to help a few people out- covering things that should be shared expenses, buying food and this and that- but I feel like my hearts been in the wrong place. Maybe I'm doing what I "should" do- but I've been getting frustrated, and impatient, and really kind of needed an attitude adjustment. Someone offered to loan me money for a ticket- but then I have to pay them back, I wound up doing it, just trusting that things would work out... but then with that have been worried, There's the never ending list of things to take care of and thanks to someone who attempted to be a secret santa- it looks like they will. I feel like someone cares...

All those people going somewhere, why have I never cared? How many times a day do we let people pass us by without a second glance... without a care- when we can be God's hands to change the world.

Why have we never cared?