The story behind this beautiful hymn is a collaborative story about two women, one a songwriter and the other a missionary: Helen Lemmel and Lilias Trotter. They never met or knew one another, but they were both born in England about a decade apart, and from their two hearts came this song of the saints that might even be sung unto His Return. 

Lilias Trotter was a brilliant artist and was once told that, because of her work, “she would be the greatest living painter and do things that would be immortal.” Even so, she ultimately felt that she could not give herself to her art completely and still “seek first the Kingdom of God.” Thus, through a series of events in her life and despite a chronic and debilitating illness, she used all of her own inheritance to serve overseas in North Africa as a missionary. She was also a prolific writer. She kept a journal every day for forty years as a missionary. Even when bedridden later in life, she continued to devote herself to prayer, writing, and sketching. These writings from her journals along with other correspondence have been turned into several published books, including a leaflet called Focused upon which this particular hymn was based. Here is some of what she wrote in that leaflet:

“It was just a dandelion, and half withered – but it was full face to the sun, and had caught into its heart all the glory it could hold, and was shining so radiantly that the dew that lay on it still made a perfect aureole round its head. And it seemed to talk, standing there – to talk about the possibility of making the very best of these lives of ours. For if the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon our hearts, there is an ocean of grace and love and power lying all around us, an ocean to which all earthly light is but a drop, and it is ready to transfigure us, as the sunshine transfigured the dandelion, and on the same condition – that we stand full face to God. Gathered up, focused lives, intent on one aim – Christ – these are the lives on which God can concentrate blessedness...  

How do we bring things to a focus in the world of optics? Not by looking at the things to be dropped, but by looking at the one point that is to be brought out.  Turn full your soul's vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him, and the Divine appeal by which God's saints are made, even in this 20th century, will lay hold of you. For "He is worthy" to have all there is to be had in the heart that He has died to win.”

This little leaflet somehow ended up in the hands of Helen Lemmel almost two decades later. Her father was a Wesleyan Methodist pastor and, like Lilias, Helen was artistically gifted even from a young age. And though she was passionate about music, Jesus was always her first love. She wrote hymns throughout her life, as well as Christian stories and poems for children. Later in life, she was diagnosed with an illness that led to total blindness, and her husband, unable to cope with her illness, abandoned their marriage and left her to deal with it all on her own. According to the story, this led her to delve even deeper into her songs to the Lord. 

When she stumbled upon the little Focused pamphlet written by Trotter, the phrase that stood out to her with resounding clarity was: “Turn full your soul's vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him.”  These words reverberated in her heart and mind and became the inspiration for "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus".

The takeaway of all of this – the pamphlet and the song – applies to all of us in the Kingdom of Christ. We must all choose where to focus our attention and our gaze. We all know what it is like to live distracted, whether our distractions are the pleasures of the world or the pains and losses of this life. We know what it is like to stumble through the dark and grasp at anything that might make us feel better, if even for a moment. The fullness of our lives in Christ is found in our gaze. It’s all about our focus. Who or what has our attention? Are we giving our time, our energy, our thoughts, and our emotions to the “one necessary thing” (Lk 10:38-42) or to all the lesser things this life and the world has to offer?  

Whatever or whoever has our attention will inevitably have our affections as well. Jesus talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount: 

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  (Matt 6:19-21)

For many of us, distraction most often looks like a glowing screen. It might not be ‘bad’ or unholy things that we’re giving attention to, but they’re still lesser things that do nothing for us but pass the time. They simply do not compare to Jesus. He’s the “one necessary thing” that will help us make it through dark nights. In weariness and weakness, we look for anything that will make us feel less weary, even if it’s a temporary fix. But it’s when we take our gaze off of our troubles and off of all of the lesser and momentary distractions, and instead turn to Jesus, that our souls finally find the rest, sufficient grace, and restoration we are desperately longing for. 

Why do we forget that? We are so dishearteningly dull sometimes. We have to be reminded over and over again that Jesus is the only One who can satisfy us. So let me be the one to remind you again today that Jesus is the only source of contentment to be found, in every season of the soul, whether we are stumbling through the darkest of valleys or ascending the high and holy mountaintop. Sing this hymn to your soul, and turn to Him. Jesus is more than enough to satisfy that cavernous ache within each one of us, and all of the lesser, distracting things will seem like fleeting shadows in the light of His glory and grace.

Are you weary?  Are you troubled?  Is there no light in the darkness you can see?  Turn your eyes to Jesus. There is light in the face of our Savior, and life more abundant and free. The Way, the Life, the Light of the World Himself is right there outshining the distractions and lesser things if you simply turn your eyes upon Jesus and set your gaze upon Him instead. For Christ alone is worthy of your attention and He is worthy of all of the affections from the heart He died to win. 

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