The following meditation was written by Dr. Thomas K. Tewell, retired pastor and founder of Macedonian Ministry Foundation.
When I was Senior Pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, the well-known preacher, Dr. Bryant Kirkland, was my distinguished predecessors. Over lunch at a Manhattan restaurant one day. Dr. Kirkland introduced me to a form of prayer that I found so provocative that I use it every day. The form of prayer is . . . ”praying with eyes wide open.”
Dr. Kirkland explained that in New York, when one tries to pray at a crowded restaurant over a meal, inevitably the waiter comes at the precise moment when the one praying uses a gesture . . . and a hot dish of soup spills all over the table or a plate is knocked out of the waiter’s hands and onto the floor.
To avoid that, Dr. Kirkland prayed at lunch that day with his eyes wide open. That way, he could notice the challenges of people in the restaurant and pray for those who need God’s help. For example, during our lunch, he prayed for the other patrons and me in this way: “Dear God, Tom and I have gathered here in this crowded restaurant amid the hustle and bustle of a great city, for our lunch. We are noticing the waiter at the next table, O God, who is being criticized by his customers for not bringing the food they ordered. We pray for the restaurant manager who has a room filled with a few disgruntled and disappointed customers, as he tries to change the mood in his restaurant. Most of all, dear God, please remind the people in this establishment that all of us are a part of your bigger world and that you have greater purposes for each of us today than we can imagine. Lift our spirits so that we might serve your greater will for our lives. And may our food be as delicious as our conversation. We pray in the name of our Savior, who was never in a hurry, but who always had time to be about your will. A-men.”
I must tell you . . . that I was so impressed with Dr. Kirkland’s prayer . . . that right at the lunch table . . . I started taking notes!
What I realized at that luncheon was that praying with our eyes open truly opens a whole new window into the world. After that lunch, I started to pray for people on the New York subway, or for people walking in and out of a hospital in Atlanta. Or for the police, or firefighters in Pasadena, California, or for people in tears at a local Starbucks, or for parents trying to deal with upset children on a playground. Praying with eyes open allowed me to pray for the people at a Homeless shelter or for corporate executives on their way to work. Praying with eyes wide open allowed me to pray for anyone in the world. I can pray while driving the car, or walking down the street, or riding in an Uber, or on an airplane. It opens a doorway to pray for anyone and everyone!
Praying with eyes wide open has impacted my life in three significant ways.
First, it allows me to pray for the people who come across my path . . . the homeless person on a street corner asking for money, or for a street vendor, or a bus driver. The Bible often tells us that “seeing the crowds, Jesus had compassion on them.”[1] When we pray with our eyes open, we can truly see the crowds of people and can become aware of their individual needs. But to be honest, I often pass by people and do not even notice them. But this prayer discipline has allowed me to see people and to notice them and then to pray for them and bring their needs before God! It is a game changer!
Second, I started to pray the Lord’s Prayer meditatively, silently in my mind throughout the day with my eyes open. This has changed my perspective on the world. As I sit in traffic, I pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer. As I wait for our grandkids at a soccer practice when the practice fields are filled with hundreds of kids and grown-ups, I pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer. Doing this allows me to pray for God’s Kingdom to come on earth, for the temptations people are facing, and for God’s will to be done. All of these are important issues to pray for . . . but I often neglect to do it until . . . I started to pray with eyes wide open. As I said . . . it is a Game Changer!
Thirdly, when I pray with eyes wide open, I ask God to change my perspective on the people around me, and I start to pray to “see people through the eyes of Christ,” and not simply through my own narrow lens. When I start to see people through the eyes of Christ, do you know what I see? I often see corporate executives and professional people who, underneath the surface, are little boys and little girls who just want to be loved. And when I start to see them in this way, I have more compassion for them and start to see them as Jesus did—as lost people who need to be found—and sick people who need to be healed. Once again, it is a game changer.
I shared this form of prayer with an Adult Sunday School class not long ago. A man named Andy was intrigued by it. He started to pray with his eyes wide open for the people who came across his path. He prayed that he would start to see people through the eyes of Christ! And he did! He and his wife Lois were experiencing some serious tension in their marriage. Andy knew that something was terribly wrong. One day as he prayed for Lois with his eyes open, Andy saw Lois through the eyes of Christ. Andy realized that Lois had some things to teach him. But he was so stubborn that he couldn’t hear what she was telling him. So, as he prayed to see her through the eyes of Christ, he got a revolutionary idea! He asked her to tell him what he was doing wrong in their marriage, from her point of view! She did! She told him that he was so stubborn that he could never admit that he was wrong or even that she had a valid point of view! And he listened to her! When Andy admitted his stubbornness and asked God to forgive him. Lois forgave him too. And it rekindled their love affair! And it all happened because Andy started to pray with his eyes wide open to truly see the people around him. And one of those whom Andy saw, in addition to himself, was his neglected wife! This kind of thing can happen to us if we start to pray with our eyes wide open!
Joy,
[1] Matthew 9:36.
