Here Am I, Send Me!

I love Isaiah 6: 1-8. It is the call of the prophet of Isaiah, “Whom shall we send and who will go for us?” Isaiah doubts his worthiness, even though he has seen the Lord, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Yet, he experiences a cleansing of the guilt of sin he has been carrying, and is able to respond, “Here am I, send me.”

God calls the most unlikely people to carry God’s message of saving love into the world. Isaiah felt unworthy, Moses was a murderer, Sarah laughed at what God had promised. Jesus picks unlikely ones as well: fishermen, tax collectors, a woman at the well…not the people you would automatically assume would be chosen for such sacred tasks.

God continues to ask, “Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?” Our task is to help one another hear and respond to God’s call. God has a particular task for each one of us: some are called to teach Sunday School and train up a new generation in the ways of Jesus. Others are called to create mission pathways so people can bring Good News in tangible ways to communities in crisis. Some are called to administrative work, to help the church use its resources to further its ministry. What has God called you to do? How have you responded, “Here am I, send me!”

I was blessed as a child to have someone recognize something in me that I wasn’t able to see in myself. One day when I was 11 years old, Ken White asked me if I ever thought about becoming a minister. His question rocked my world and forever changed my walk with Jesus. Through that simple question, God’s call for my life was given the space to grow.

Each church should be nurturing future leaders. How is yours doing it? Do you see the fruits of the Spirit in a young person’s life, just waiting to be encouraged to develop? Have you offered a spiritual nudge and asked, “Is God calling you to ordained ministry?” Are you staying alert and looking at those who might seem like unlikely candidates for such work? The teen who is always hanging out in the background of church activities, who seems to have no where else to go? The addict who has found sobriety whose joy at a new lease on life is contagious? The single mom with several children of her own yet still has the emotional bandwidth to be a mom to all the kids in the neighborhood?

When was the last time your church sent someone into ministry? If you are not nurturing the next generation of ministers, how will your church have the spiritual leadership to continue to be a living witness of God’s generous grace in the future?

May you and your congregation allow God to speak through you, “Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?” as you encourage deeper discipleship in one another, and may someone—may many people--respond, “Here I am, send me.”