Brandon Heath – Give Me Your Eyes

Brandon Heath Knell, known professionally as Brandon Heath, is an American Contemporary Christian artist.  He released ten albums and five EP’s, including:

• Early Stuff (2003)
• Soldier (2004)
• Don’t Get Comfortable (EP, 2005)
• Don’t Get Comfortable (2006)
• What If We (2008)
• The Sunrise (EP, 2011)
• Leaving Eden (2011)
• Give Me Your Eyes: The Acoustic Sessions (EP, 2012)
• Blue Mountain (2012)
• Christmas Is Here (2013)
• No Turning Back (2015)
• Faith Hope Love Repeat (2017)
• Baby Boy (EP, 2020)
• We Need Emmanuel (EP, 2021)
• Enough Already (2022)

Heath won five CMA Dove and one Emmy award, including New Artist of the Year (2008), Male Vocalist of the Year (2009 and 2020), and Songwriter of the Year (2009).

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Brandon-heath-give-me-your-eyes-lyrics.

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1. What message does the song communicate?

Heath spends his days totally unaware of those who are hurting and broken.  His recent trip on an airplane caused him to think.  He did nothing to help people like a woman who dangerously crosses a busy street while she forces a smile and a man looking for a job who is too proud to inform his wife.  Realizing his error, he prays to God that He gives him the same love that He has for humanity, not seeing with self-centered eyes, but observing people from God’s perspective, that he should love them as he loves himself.

My only major criticism is that Heath is not clear on who “God” is.  Is it the Christian God?  Allah?  Vishnu?  Heath could have done a better job explaining attributes/acts that differentiate the Christian God from others, or just name-drop Jesus on this track.

Score: 7/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

I took one point away to assume God is the Christian version.  With that in mind, Scripture agrees with this song.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-7: Heath describes in vivid detail his perspective from onboarding a flying airplane that descends and touches down.

[Pre-Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: Heath has an “aha” moment, inquiring to himself why he’s not taken the time to consider how to care about others (Philippians 2:3-4), most likely, because he is too absorbed in himself to notice (Revelation 3:15-16).

[Chorus]

Lines 1-7: Realizing his apathy, Heath prays that God will help him to see through His eyes, loving them as God did by sacrificing himself for them (John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8, and 1 John 4:9-10).  He intends to obey Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 19:19, Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:8-9, Galatians 5:14, and James 2:8).

Line 8: Repeats line 2.

Line 9: Yes X 4.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-7: Lists two examples of people Heath noticed, but didn’t do anything to help them, namely, a female who fakes happiness amid walking onto oncoming traffic, and a man who fakes “everything is just fine” amid searching for a job.

[Bridge]

Lines 1-7: Summarize the entire song, which itself is summarized by Matthew‬ ‭9:37-38.

Score: 9/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Heath prays to God for eyes to see people as He does.  However, the specific deity that Heath references is ambiguous apart from hearing this song within a Christian context.

Score: 6/10

4. What does this song glorify?

While it glorifies God that Heath repents of his mistake and prays to Him for guidance, it does not glorify Him if we don’t know if Heath references the Christian God or another deity.

Score: 7/10

Closing Comments

Brandon Heath’s Give Me Your Eyes is decent, yet, unclear on who “God” is.  If we assume the Christian God, I applaud and appreciate Heath’s honesty, that he prays to God for guidance and spiritual eyes to see people as He does: humans who have needs that other humans like Heath can meet by sacrificing for them.  However, Heath could have done better to provide explicit names, attributes, or acts that make it clear he is referencing the Christian God.

I cannot recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 7.5/10

Artist Info

Track: Give Me Your Eyes (listen to the song)

Artist: Brandon Heath

Album: What If We

Genre: Pop

Release Year: 2008

Duration: 3:53

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