Open My Eyes, That I May See -- Clara H. Scott

 

This writer was feeling self-conscious, so perhaps she was praying for more of His consciousness. Maybe Clara H. Scott wondered whether all of her senses were engaged, prompting her to ask God to “Open My Eyes, That I May See”. It seems that she was looking a lot further out than the Iowa landscape, where she’d spent most of her life (see its flag here). Was it in fact more than visual clarity that Clara sought, as she looked about her surroundings and thought about her disposition to serve Him with her whole being? Was she attuned to listening to others even, as she mulled over her prayer that day? From what she penned, it seems her poem’s title words indeed originated with an ancient anonymous poet, meaning that an echo emerged from her being that was centuries old.      

 

Clara Scott might have been around 54 years old when she asked God to open her eyes by the last few years of the 19^th Century, but she had been sensitive to His leading for many years by the time she penned this musical prayer. She was still a teenager in the mid-19^th Century when she attended a music school in Chicago and then went on to teach at a seminary in northwestern Iowa a few years later. She eventually authored up to four publications, filled with her vocal and instrumental musical compositions, by the end of her life. ‘Open My Eyes…’ was apparently written and published (in 1895) just two years before she died tragically in an accident. She was well-schooled and adept in her musical vocation at that point, but does one ever stop learning? From her viewpoint, was she also still trying to teach students what must come from within a writer-composer’s spirit, in order to please the giver of musical talent? Either or both of these attitudes could have motivated Clara to ask for open eyes (v.1) and ears (v.2); and for a mouth and heart (v.3) willing to communicate His principles. Clara may have looked to an ancient psalm (Psalm 119:18) for the reminder and inspiration she needed for her verses. The ancient writer sought Him out, but could he have realistically expected to exhaust the well of wisdom that God possesses, even in the bible’s longest book, and its longest set of verses (176 verses are in Psalm 119)? That would not have been an uncommon thought, if Clara’s mind went there as she read what her songwriting ancestor shared with his readers. How does one communicate with the inexhaustible God, and become more like Him in musical verse? That’s what Clara was after.

 

What more could be said of Clara Scott? It’s instructive, that while Clara’s works filled four publications, and one might say they sum up her life, she said something quite different in her own words in ‘Open My Eyes…’. She says she waited ‘silently’ for His Spirit (refrain). That speaks louder than all the other works she wrote, perhaps, to inform us who Clara Scott really was. She was His, or at least she wanted to be. She wasn’t looking at herself, except to see how He formed and moved her own spirit. She might have been a 19^th Century poetess-composer, but she wasn’t averse to looking backward to another writer two or three millennia old, to find what she really wanted. That ancient writer felt the same way. All of us should share that goal, no matter what century we occupy.  

   

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; and Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990. 

 

See brief biography of the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/s/c/o/t/scott_chj.htm

 

See all three of the hymn’s original verses and the refrain here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/p/e/n/openeyes.htm

How Long Has It Been? -- Thomas Mosie Lister

 

Was he perhaps on his knees as he thought over what he wanted to verbalize? “How Long Has It Been?”, Mosie Lister wanted to ask so many people for whom he was praying one day. He may have even been reading and reflecting on the way God Himself was postured in a garden during His own most difficult earthly episode (see the artwork here of Christ in Gethsemane, by Heinrich Hofman in 1866). Lister had been studying, singing, and composing music for some time, and yet he probably didn’t come upon what he wanted to say the first time he considered his acquaintances who had drifted away from a faith they once held. Instead, it more likely was a gnawing feeling that stayed with him, until one day he happened upon the words, some that he’d been rolling over in his mind. So why not use these words?

 

That question was so simple, that Mosie Lister barely waited another moment to start scribbling the words to voice his musical question. That episode did not mean that Mosie’s songwriting penchant was a ‘natural’ thing however, a fact to which his own parents and his educational pursuits would attest. Though he would say that the words to ‘How Long…’ were finished in ten minutes, one would have been surprised to expect that from the youngster whom the Lister parents coaxed to start singing in rural Georgia in the 1920s/early 1930s. He apparently possessed no ear for musical tones, but through lots of effort, including his pre- and post-World War II pursuits to formally study music, he overcame the deficiencies his parents had initially identified. By his mid-to-late 20s, Mosie had been in three professional singing groups before he altered course into songwriting and forming a publishing company in his early 30s (by 1953). By this time, he surely had seen at least a few people around him also alter course, but in a negative way to walk away from God. This bothered Mosie deeply, readily provoking the thoughts that were on his heart to say to them, some of whom had abandoned God years before. Mosie’s purpose was obvious – convict them, turn them around. And, it wasn’t just a casual conversation that he suggested they pursue. Besides being on their knees (vv.1 and 3), these wayward who wanted to return to Him should share ‘…hidden secrets’ (v.1) and speak with God all night (vv. 1 and 4). One of Mosie’s longings for the lost people was that they would find peace, compassion, friendship, and purpose for living that begins with submission in prayer (vv. 2 and 4).

 

Mosie’s words resonated with thousands, even millions of people. Over a million copies of ‘How Long…’ had reportedly been reproduced by the early 1960s, five years after Mosie’s hand first wrote in a burst what his spirit was feeling. Mosie must have thought that a prayer is one of the most effectual enterprises. From a personal and professional standpoint, how great was it that Mosie’s 10-minute effort garnered more than a million copies of profit? But, in an infinitely greater way, how effective is it to pray to God? He’s called the Almighty, and so many other names because it’s really impossible to capture Him in just a few names, or even dozens or scores of names. He’s infinite, many times more than a million. And, I can pray to Him. What is standing in the way of you connecting with the unbounded God? Mosie asked you, too. Are you ready to ask yourself?

   

See the source for the song story in this source: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006. 

 

See the story here also: https://thescottspot.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/how-long-has-it-been-written-in-1956/

 

See brief biography of the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/i/s/t/lister_tm.htm

See more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosie_Lister

Shine Down – Billy Smiley, Mark Gersmehl, Bob Farrell

He made the light, so He knows how it works. Did these three musicians imagine that such a light would behave like this animation, as it passes through a prism and is dispersed in all of white light’s various colors (see the picture/animation here)? To someone who knows not how it works, nor trusts the Creator of this phenomenon, this spectacle would probably be alarming, even terrifying. That must have been what three young men (all of them in their 20s or early 30s) named Billy Smiley, Mark Gersmehl, and Bob Farrell thought when they collectively asked God to ‘Shine Down” a light on their world. Something or someone was disturbing them and their journey, so they boldly sought the intervention of Him, the One who is the Maker and Preserver of all good things. The paths of Billy and Mark would co-mingle for several years, while Bob’s was in a different but not dissimilar area; and so, at least a brief collaboration ensued between the three men to say something they all believed.

 

At least two of the ‘Shine Down’ authors emerged from the influence of Bill Gaither and his southern gospel music ventures in the early 1980s. Billy and Mark were part of the Gaither Vocal Band in 1981, a time when they and some others from Gaither musical groups decided to form a new group, White Heart. Perhaps Bob Farrell had at least an indirect musical relationship with the Gaithers or with White Heart in the early 1980s when ‘Shine Down’ was conceived (in 1984). Bob’s ventures in Christian music since the early 1970s included (according to the Farrell and Farrell website that he and his wife Jayne sponsor) performance and songwriting with various Christian music artists, so we could imagine the paths of the Gaithers, Bob Farrell, Mark Gersmehl, and Billy Smiley, and probably many others, criss-crossing on occasion. That’s just the way the music industry is; sharing ideas between like believers is also one way His Spirit moves and makes things happen synergistically. And so, these three collaborated in a way that remains untold, except for the two verses and chorus that they penned. And, that’s OK, because what they said was not about themselves, but instead about the light-giver. Were the three of them actually sharing with each other what an ancient writer had to say about light and darkness (John 3:19-21), that the darkness is afraid of the light because the misdeeds of evil people are exposed when it comes?  It would not be uncommon for fellow believers to share with one another the miseries of life, and to pray for rectification. They pleaded for His power to visit one or perhaps several circumstances, because ‘…darkness flees..’ when He is around. And, it wasn’t just a relief from trouble that they wanted, but the courage they would gain from His presence – ‘…let the people see.’  

 

Does the light ever really vanish, or do we just not see some of it at times? Like the light before it goes through a prism, is some of His working – His colors – unnoticed until we look more closely? Billy, Mark, and Bob’s two verses extend the initial thoughts they give us in their chorus refrain. We can beg Him to send light to earth, but they remind us that there’s a place and a time when light will always be present. That land full of glory (v.1), that city (v.2) where He lives, will be forever illuminated. This ground where I live is covered by darkness, sometimes up to 14 hours every day in the deepest part of winter. Some people actually have a condition called SAD, seasonal affective disorder, because of the minimal light. How about you? Are you SAD, but because God’s light is missing? You’re not alone – Billy, Mark, and Bob felt the same way once. We can all go to the perpetual light, someday!

 

 

See here for brief biography of two of the authors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Smiley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Gersmehl

 

here’s a link to the group that two of the authors formed, and which may have contributed to the song’s development: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Heart

 

The is a link to a site for the possible third author and his wife: https://www.westcoast.dk/artists/f/farrell-and-farrell/