Here I Am

I have been jamming to a new song from Downhere. The song is called “Here I Am” and it is, for me, a moving song. The chorus goes like this:

“Here I am, Lord send me,
All of my life, I make an offering,
Here I am, Lord send me,
Somehow my story, Is part of your plan,
Here I am”

Those words have been on my mind since the very first time I heard this song. In fact, the phrase “Here I am…” has always been a favorite of mine. One of my absolute favorite stories from the Bible is the story of Samuel’s calling. I touched upon this in the last blog. Check out 1 Samuel 3: 1-10. Basically, we have a young boy, Samuel, who is a Nazirite (promised to be so by his mother) and is in a sort of “training” with Eli. One night Samuel begins to hear a voice calling his name. He mistakenly believes that it is Eli who is calling him. Samuel does this three times (according to Scripture) and then finally Eli realizes that it is the Lord who is calling Samuel. He instructs Samuel to “lie down, and if he calls you, say, Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” The next time God calls to Samuel, Samuel replies “Speak, for your servant is listening.” I love that phrase. So does God! That should be our response to Him daily.

God’s desire for us is that we have a deep, intimate relationship with Him. To do so we cannot hide, we can’t drag our feet, and we can’t resist Him. Sure, we CAN do all these things, but we won’t reap the rewards in store for us. I am not talking monetary rewards. I am speaking about fullness in Him, a rich, long lasting relationship with Jesus Christ. That, to me, is worth more than all the riches this world has to offer. It is so hard, though, to put this into practice.

So many times I want to hide from God. It may be that I am living in sin, or possibly I am just too tired to converse with God. Maybe distractions have crept in and caused my attention to focus. Whatever it is, that isn’t what He wants from us. Too many times we think we can just go here or there and God won’t see us. New flash…God CAN see us. There is no distance too far that He can’t reach us. That’s a good thing. You see, God created us in His image. He wants to have a deep, intimate relationship with us. There is a longing there in us to connect with Him. God’s desire is to use us…to use me, to use you. Our story can be a part of His plan is we simply reply “Here I am Lord!”

I also believe that this ties into living an extraordinary life. When we make our lives an offering to the Lord, our relationship with Him grows. I won’t promise that you won’t be wounded. In fact, I will do the opposite…when you live life for God, when you live life in faithful vulnerability, you WILL be hurt. It may be someone you don’t know, but most likely it will be people close to you. Whether it’s intentional or not it will happen. Now don’t let this discourage you, but rather be encouraged by this. If you want extraordinary you have to be willing to open yourself up. You won’t achieve much if you live a guarded life with a hardened heart. Your life has to be an offering to the Lord. I think Theodore Roosevelt sums up the extraordinary life best when he says “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” If we withhold ourselves from God we will live in that “grey twilight” rather than winning the “glorious triumphs” of life.

Again, when we live our lives as offerings to the Lord, we put ourselves out there. If hurt comes, and it will, then take that hurt and give it to the Lord. If we hold onto it we will grow bitter and angry. We need to let go of that. So, let’s make our lives offerings to the Lord. Let us respond to God’s calling with a hearty “HERE I AM!”