Month of Music Day 29 Newsboys Where You Belong/Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus Not Ashamed When you´re dull from all that glitters When you´re thoughts have a hollow ring When you can´t escape from the feeling you´re getting it wrong All your foolproof plans seem foolish All your status is status quo All your really need to know is where you belong [Chorus:] Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace I was used to the cold for so long that couldn´t feel anything And I shivered and stared like a beggar who won´t lift his hands I was numb until He touched me I was deaf until He heard I was senseless ´til I met the One who understands [Chorus:] Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace Turn your eyes Turn your eyes Turn your eyes And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace

My Take:

Quite simply, without this song, when I was going past the railroad tracks by the graveyard near the light on the North side of campus in Hattiesburg...I would be either dead, a drug addict, or worse. No, I didn't wake up one day, this song was playing, and I stopped dealing drugs. It's never that easy. I was watching cable TV at 3 AM one night, full of bitter rage (which is usually why I'm up at 3 AM) and a thing called ZTV was on. The video to this song was playing. At the time, I was finally on my own in the big city, and I could've done anything with myself. It was really becoming easier and easier to equivocate morality. It was becoming easier and easier just to be more like my friends. Things weren't becoming less complicated, just easier. It was after I'd slept with (but not sexed up) this girl that God started working on me again. I really was becoming one of "them." Not that "them" are evil people, it's just that "them" aren't living in the light of God's ways, for the most part. Not that I'm ever going to hold a candle to Jesus, it's just that I was heading in the wrong direction. Fast. On a greased rail. Something else about "them:" I love "them." "Them" are my friends, and I have great love for "them." It just that my God calls me to rebuke the sins that "them" were involved in. It was really just the Devil working on their sin nature, but I wasn't helping, either. 3 years earlier, I'd enjoyed singing the Hymn, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." I was living for God, even when ignoring my Mother's cancer. Amazingly, God was patient with my immaturity, as He still is, to this day. I owe it to this song.

status: published
author: John Stansbury
cms: wordpress
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  similarterms: turn eyes jesus easier light things song grow earth strangely grace glory full belong love face living playing working chorus