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Be Thou My Vision: The Blind Poet With Spiritual Insights · Traveler’s Tales

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  For generations, Christians have sung the prayer,
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  Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart.
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  We sing those words asking God to help us see life correctly,
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  to see beyond what what is temporary, beyond what is distracting,
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  and beyond what the world calls important. Would it
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  surprise you if I told you that one of the clearest expressions of spiritual
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  vision ever written came from a man who could not see?
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  Behind the familiar words of this hymn is a remarkable
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  story. The roots reach back more than 1,000 years to ancient
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  Ireland, and according to tradition, to a poet who lived much
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  of his life without physical sight. His name was Yo-Yi,
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  though history remembers him better as Delann Forgale.
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  This is Greg Dowdy. Welcome to Traveler's Tales, produced by Enjoying the
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  Journey. On Traveler's Tales, we journey into the people,
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  places, and history surrounding the Christian faith and
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  discover truths that can strengthen our own walk with Christ.
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  Today, our journey takes us to ancient Ireland
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  and into the story behind one of Christianity's most enduring
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  hymns, Be Thou My Vision.
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  Dallán forgáil lived during the late 6th and early 7th
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  centuries, a period when poetry, scholarship, and education
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  held enormous importance in Ireland. Born into
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  a noble family, Dallán became recognized as one of
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  Ireland's outstanding poets and scholars, He devoted himself
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  to poetry, literature, and theology and rose to
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  a position of considerable influence. Yet there was something
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  remarkable about his accomplishments. Delon was blind.
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  Think about that for a moment. In a world without Braille,
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  audiobooks, or digital libraries, blindness presented an
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  enormous obstacle to scholarship. Yet Delon
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  refused to allow what he could not do determine
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  what God could do through his life. And there's an important lesson
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  for us all. We often focus on what we lack.
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  If I only had more ability. If I only had more education.
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  If I only had better opportunities. If only my circumstances
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  were different. But God has never been limited
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  by our limitations. Moses struggled with his speech.
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  David was overlooked by his own family. Paul carried
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  a thorn in his flesh. And throughout Scripture, God repeatedly
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  demonstrates that He can accomplish extraordinary things through ordinary
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  people who surrender what they have to Him.
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  Delon could not see the world around him, yet his life reminds
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  us that physical sight and spiritual vision are 2 very different things.
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  Jesus warned of people who had eyes but could not truly see.
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  And the opposite can also be true. A person may lack physical sight
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  while possessing remarkable spiritual clarity.
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  That makes the words associated with Delan all the more striking: Be
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  thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. In other words,
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  Lord, I do not simply want to see; I want to see through
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  to you. There's another fascinating part of Delan's
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  story. He was not an insignificant or forgotten man in his generation.
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  He actually enjoyed recognition, influence, and position.
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  Yet the ancient prayer attributed to him contains these remarkable words:
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  Riches I heed not, nor vain empty praise; thou
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  mine inheritance now and always. Those are
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  powerful words coming from someone who actually knew something of prominence.
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  It's easy to say that recognition doesn't matter, when no one recognizes
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  you. It's easy to dismiss wealth when you have never possessed
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  it. But Delon had experienced influence and honor and still
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  understood that none of it could compare with knowing God.
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  Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, for where your treasure
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  is, there will your heart be also. That gives us another
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  question worth considering: what has become my treasure?
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  We live in a culture that constantly measures life
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  by what can be accumulated or achieved.
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  We count followers, possessions, accomplishments,
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  recognition. Yet eventually every earthly treasure
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  loses its value. The prayer behind
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  Be Thou My Vision points us toward something greater.
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  Thou and thou only, first in my heart, high King
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  of Heaven, My treasure thou art. That's more than
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  just beautiful poetry. That is a prayer for
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  reordered priorities. Lord, before everything else,
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  be first in my heart. But the story of this hymn
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  did not end in ancient Ireland. For centuries,
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  the old Irish words survived while generations came and
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  went. Then roughly 1,300 years later,
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  a young scholar named Mary Elizabeth Byrne encountered the
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  ancient text. In 1905, Byrne published an English
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  prose translation of the Old Irish prayer in Éireann, a scholarly
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  journal devoted to Irish language and literature. Think about the
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  providence involved. Words written centuries earlier
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  were still waiting to speak to another generation, and a young scholar
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  took an ancient text and brought its meaning into English.
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  She could not have known how far those words would eventually travel.
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  And there's something encouraging about that. We rarely know how
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  far God may carry something we faithfully place in his hands.
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  A prayer prayed today may influence a child
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  tomorrow. A lesson taught to a handful of people may
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  be remembered decades later. A word of
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  encouragement may continue working long after we have forgotten
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  saying it. Faithfulness does not require us to
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  know the outcome. It simply requires us to obey God with
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  the opportunity he's given us. The story continued
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  with Eleanor Hull, an Irish writer, historian, and scholar.
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  Hull recognized the beauty of the ancient prayer and produced
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  the versified English form that would become familiar to generations of
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  Christians. Her version appeared in 1912 in
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  Poem Book of the Gael. Eventually, the words were paired
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  with the traditional Irish melody we know as Slán,
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  named for Slane Hill in Ireland, a place long associated with
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  the story of Patrick. By the early 20th century,
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  Be Thou My Vision had entered hymnals, and the ancient prayer began
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  traveling around the world. Congregations sang it,
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  families sang it, missionaries carried it across oceans,
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  believers sang it in seasons of joy and seasons of
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  sorrow. And more than 1,000 years after the ancient words were first
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  composed, Christians are still praying Be thou my vision, O Lord
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  of my heart. Only God could write a story
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  like that. One person writes, another translates,
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  another arranges, another provides a melody.
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  Generations pass, and eventually millions of believers
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  are strengthened by something none of those individuals could have
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  fully imagined. That's often how God works.
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  We see one small act of faithfulness. God sees generations.
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  But perhaps the greatest lesson of Be Thou My Vision is found in the title
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  itself. Everyone has a vision.
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  Something shapes the way we see our circumstances,
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  our future, our success, our disappointments, and even ourselves.
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  For some, that vision is money. For others, it is
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  approval. For some, it's success,
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  comfort, security, or recognition. Whatever becomes
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  our vision eventually begins directing our life.
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  That is why the ancient prayer remains so relevant. It does not
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  ask God to give us better vision. It asks God to be
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  our vision. There's a difference. When Christ
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  becomes our vision, we begin seeing everything else through him.
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  We see success differently. We see suffering differently.
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  We look at possessions and people and even our limitations differently.
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  And perhaps that is the beautiful irony of this entire story.
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  A prayer asking God for vision comes to us from a tradition
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  connected to a man who was blind. Delon could not
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  see the things that people around him could see, yet perhaps he
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  saw something far more important. Earthly riches fade,
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  human praise disappears, Physical abilities can be
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  taken away. Generations come and generations go,
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  but Christ remains. So perhaps
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  today the prayer of our hearts should be the prayer Christians have
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  carried for centuries. Lord, when the world competes for
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  my attention, be thou my vision.
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  When success tempts me to measure life incorrectly,
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  be thou my vision. When disappointments cloud
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  the road ahead, be thou my vision. When I'm tempted to focus
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  on what I lack instead of what you can do, be thou my vision.
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  And when everything around me is trying to become the treasure of my heart,
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  thou and thou only first in my heart. High King
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  of Heaven, my treasure thou art.
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  Thank you for joining us today. Today on Traveler's Tales.
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  To continue exploring the people, places, and the truths
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  of scripture, and to find practical resources that will help you to know
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  and follow Christ more deeply, please visit our website,