My Favorite Hymn as a Boy

I shared last week that Luella’s favorite hymn is “Be Still My Soul.” Do you have a favorite?

To be honest, I don’t know if I could answer that question and identify a single hymn that I love more than all the rest. But I can tell you this: ever since I was a little boy, I have loved “Be Thou My Vision.”

As a young boy, I didn’t truly understand how deeply important the concept of this hymn was until much later in life. And I’m still learning, growing, forgetting, and having to remind myself! None of us will ever be grace graduates this side of eternity.

What’s the central concept of this hymn? Here it is: the most important vision system of a human being is the eyes of your heart.

The most important vision system of a human being is not actually your physical eyes. Although being physically blind is a significant obstacle that presents many challenges, you can be physically blind and still live relatively well.

But you can’t be spiritually blind and live well at all.

You’re probably familiar with the more recent Christian worship song, “Open the Eyes of My Heart.” We absolutely need the spiritually blind eyes of our hearts open, but I would go on to add, “Fill the eyes of my heart.”

Fill the eyes of our hearts with a hopeful, gospel-rich, God-centered vision. As Paul encourages in Ephesians 1:18–19, “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.”

Whatever fills the eyes of your heart will control your thoughts, your words, and your behavior in the 10,000 moments of everyday life.

If the eyes of your heart are filled with a vision for earthly, temporary, material God-replacements, your life will be lived in pursuit of those treasures that don’t satisfy. But if the eyes of your heart are filled with a vision for God, it will change everything.

What a gorgeous thing to pray for, and to sing aloud, that no one else but God would be the only One who fills the vision of the eyes of my heart, from morning to evening.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me save that thou art.
Thou my best thought by day and by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

I love what David prays and sings for in Psalm 27:4: “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”

I said at the beginning that I have loved “Be Thou My Vision” since I was a boy, but I didn’t truly understand it until I was an adult. And until the Lord calls me home, there will be days of spiritual blindness, blurry vision, and having the eyes of my heart filled with God-replacements.

I know you are like me, so why don’t you pray and sing with me every day, in the morning and the evening, that God would be the One who fills the vision of the eyes of our hearts?

It’s only when you look at life through the lens of the stunning beauty of your Redeemer that you will think, speak, and act with gospel hope and God-honoring obedience!

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me save that thou art.
Thou my best thought by day and by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true Word;
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord.
Thou my great Father, I thy dear child;
Thou in me dwelling, with thee reconciled.

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight.
Thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tow’r;
Raise thou me Heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.

Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise;
Thou mine inheritance, now and always.
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heav’ns Sun!
Heart of my heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

A Prayer for Today: Lord, I confess that I am blind to my own blindness. The eyes of my heart are often clouded or obstructed by the worries of this world, the difficult circumstances I face, my own spiritual apathy, or a countless number of things I find myself concerned with each day. Would you, by your grace, open and fill the eyes of my heart with a hopeful, gospel-rich, God-centered vision? I need you to help me see you and the rest of the world around me with gospel-accuracy and compassion. May my thoughts, words, and actions be honoring to you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Discussion Prompt for Children

1. What does it mean if someone is unable to see? What do you think it means if someone is unable to spiritually see? How is it dangerous if someone can’t spiritually see?

2. What would you say controls most of your words, thoughts, or actions each day? What do you think my words, thoughts, and actions are controlled by each day? How can we help one another to allow God to control our words, thoughts and actions?

3. In the Bible, Jesus often opens the eyes of the blind. What parts of our lives need to have our eyes opened so that we can see with spiritual clearness?

Reflection Questions

1. Try to explain in your own words why and what it means that the most important vision system for a human being is the eyes of their heart.

2. Why can’t you be spiritually blind and live well? What does living well truly look like in a spiritual sense?

3. What is currently filling the eyes of your heart? In what ways is that person/thing/circumstance controlling your thoughts, your words, and your behavior in the 10,000 moments of everyday life? What God-replacements need to be weeded out of your life and replaced with the goodness of the gospel and gospel living?

4. Who can you ask to help you see with spiritual clarity as you walk with Jesus day-by-day?