"Kyrie Eleison" and Kristi

I was just listening to the latest Getty album off my phone through my Bluetooth speaker in the kitchen while doing supper dishes.  (Thanks to my awesome husband for my favorite Christmas present!  =)
"Kyrie Eleison" came on.  The first time I heard this song, I cringed.  I have two memories of this song - before the Getty version. 
 

#1.)  A not-so-talented-as-we-thought-we-were highschool choir attempting to sing words we did not understand. 
 

And #2.)  The movie "Ever After" and a screeching, sobbing bride unwillingly entering an arranged marriage.

Admit it.  That's what popped into your mind, too.  =)

 

Here's the words to the Getty version.  You should probably just go download the entire album on iTunes.  =)  I can't find a youtube video, so you can't listen to it.  Sorry...

 

"Kyrie eleison; have mercy. 

Christe eleison; have mercy. 

Kyrie eleison; have mercy. 

Christe eleison; have mercy. 

As we come before You 

With the needs of our world, 

We confess our failures and our sin, 

For our words are many 

Yet our deeds have been few; 

Fan the fire of compassion 

Once again. 

 

When the cries of victims 

Go unheard in the land, 

And the scars of war refuse to heal, 

Will we stand for justice 

To empower the weak 

Til their bonds of oppression 

Are no more? 
 

If we love our God with all our 

Heart, mind, and strength, 

And we love our Neighbors as ourselves, 

Then this law of love

Will heal the nations of earth, 

And the glory of Christ Will be revealed. 

 

Lord, renew our vision 

To be Christ where we live, 

To reach out in mercy to the lost;

For each cup of kindness 

To the least in our midst 

Is an offering of worship 

To the throne."

Keith Getty and Stuart Townend

www.gettymusic.com/hymns.aspx?id=243

 

 

The last line reminded me of this blog post by my youngest sister.  She's a nurse at a Bible college in rural Zambia. 

I cried when I read Kristi's blog.  This woman being pushed in a wheelbarrow to see a doctor - not to live long but to die with less pain.  Faceless and nameless to me.  She has a face and a name.  God loves her.  Her mother and her baby boy and my sister know and love her too.  I cannot - I do not dare blur her in with the millions of other suffering, dying people in the world. 

 

I wonder if life is a long walk through brokenness.  A continual parade past the brokenness of other people and a continual revealing of the depth of the scars on my own shattered soul.  And I wonder why God constantly puts in front of me people for whom my heart breaks with sorrow and reminds me that I am helpless to do anything.  That He is the Savior, not me.  That His ways are higher than mine.

 

When Jesus walked the earth, he gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, raised the dead.  I just read it this morning in Matthew 20.  Jesus was "moved with compassion" and healed the blind. 

 

But what I am to do when I see the dying riding to Kristi in a wheelbarrow and am moved with compassion but have no physical cure?  When my broken heart and my God are all I have to give - and even that from half a world away?

 

That's why I love this song.  "For each cup of kindness to the least in our midst is an offering of worship to the throne." 

That glass of water Caleb just carried Julia after the lights were out?  That can count as worship!

To the exhausted mommy who hasn't slept in years.  That compassion for your screaming two year old at 3:00 am who literally has slept through the night five times in his entire life - that's straight from the heart of Jesus. 

Teach me to walk close to you, Jesus, so I catch Your heart of compassion and use it when You give me opportunities.  That is worship!