Have Mine Eyes Seen??

Anonymous teen student

inspired by lyrics

Anonymous teen student

inspired by lyrics

Patti Hricinak Sheets

inspired by lyrics and the fire in the hearts of the teen students.

Battle Hymn of the Republic lyrics were written by abolitionist Julia Howe in 1861. I could go on to explain in detail more information but I am going to leave some of the research up to you, if you choose to do so.

Have we fallen prey to our thinking being dependent or surrendered to the views of others. What is your story? How did you come to think the way you do? My intent is not with arrogance when I suggest, read and research for yourself before jumping to conclusion.

I have learned the hard way to block out the noise of the opinions of others and lean in to cracking mysteries on my own. Its how I hope to become smart and solid and more centered in the God who reigns. This does not require a degree or higher learning ( Dont fall for that lie) All that is required is a hunger for truth by way of a collection of individual stories. You cant deny stories when they happen in real time.

I suggest you find the lyrics to this hymn and digest them slowly. Eat them in with content and application of heart.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored……………………..As He died to make men holy let us die to make men free…….Our God is marching on. This hymn is a staple in American storytelling. It is vulnerable to loss of meaning as it passes through the minds of people who were not there to live out the story that inspired the writing. Do we censor or eliminate this hymn or not?

“The Grapes of Wrath” a book inspired by lyrics in the hymn has already been banned out of schools since the early 1990’s, taking with it stories of human endurance in dust bowls of the depression. Thus eliminating American story. Does our answer depend on the thinking of the elite or those who somehow convince us that we are beneath them in our ability to process thought? I cant play the game anymore of being fooled to think those with high intellect have more of an advantage when compared to my degree in Art and my simple but powerful past.

If you read Ephesians 6:12 ( look it up) you will see that coping with deceptive temptation requires truth and righteousness. You will also see how the forces of Satan are highly structured for the most destructive purposes. His goal is to attack and destroy anything that is a remnant of a story of the people.

Story 1: A women receives a baby shower invitation by mistake. Unknowingly, out of excitement she purchases a gift and RSVPs that she will attend. On the receiving end of the RSVP, a women with higher learning, high academic thinking, panics, knowing this women of lower social standing will not fit in. Calling the women who was invited by mistake and telling her NOT to attend crushes the very center of this women’s giving spirit and her willingness to share a gift. Is this a form of censorship of the heart? More damage is done, not only in the heart of the disappointed women who was rejected by the elite but a loss of a human connection that could have taken place by the stories shared at that gathering. A beautiful culmination of time and richness of contrast of stories was missed out on. In this, we miss the boat of human dignity and the very core of who Christ is.

Story 2: A request is made for someone to open their home for a meeting/gathering of a very diverse collection of people to discuss an upcoming event. The first hand to go up and volunteer her home is a person who time after time had been ignored and shunned at several previous meetings. She with her courageous lion’s heart and her love for Jesus Christ and her hospitable nature jumped at the opportunity. Ignored and invisible she was overlooked …….was she censored??

We are capable of censoring the heart as well as the things that are written of and by the heart. Censorship of an old patriotic hymn, a novel depicting the broken human spirit that makes our government in DC look bad or the severing of an individual heart are all forms of degrading the human breath.

We miss out on the true message if we allow ourselves to fall captive to the influence of those who are self appointed thinkers on our behalf.

Censorship in itself is a damaging negative word but gains vortex capabilities of chaos when we put it into action for no other reason than because we feel like it and it elevates us!

“He is sifting out the hearts of men Before His judgement seat”