Heart Tracks - Here I Am?

"Abraham!," God called. "Yes," he replied. "Here I am." Genesis 22:1....."How would your life change if you said 'here I am' to God?" Chris Tiegreen

No matter where and how hard we try to hide, God always knows where to find us. He always knows where we are. Our great problem is that we don't. This conviction has only deepened with my own experience with Him, coupled with 35 years of pastoral ministry. We have done a wonderful job of convincing ourselves that we're "with Him" until He comes seeking for us to be, to go, to do, that which we don't really want to be, go, or do at all. Hence the piercing question asked by Tiegreen. How would our lives change if in answer to His call, we simply said, "Here I am?" More than where such a response would take us, or what we do there, just what kind of person would we be in Christ? Oswald Chambers said that God desires to take a person and make a "holy experiment" of them. To have such free and yielded access to them that He is able to display the fullness of His life in and through them. Such a thing can only happen when we respond to His call with those three simple but powerful words; "Here I am." Have they ever been spoken by us? Do we speak them now?

We all have some very clear ideas about who and where we want to be, as well as what we want to be doing. Self interest is usually at the center of it all. Many in the church are willing to serve Him, but only in places of their choosing. Places that give them a greater platform to display themselves. Places that can feed egos, advance agendas, and enhance comforts. We don't want to be anonymous, but for most, that is exactly what He calls us to be. Hebrews 11 talks about the heroes of the faith, but only a few of them have names. Scripture only refers to them as "those others," but notes that they were "too good for this world." They were His, and were willing to go with Him to wherever He led, to be nothing and no one of note...for Him. With Him. Forgotten, unknown by all perhaps, but held forever in the center of His heart. There is much talk in the church today about changing the world. Somehow, we seem to want to do that without us changing at all. These simple men and women of faith, with their simple response to Him, were transformed by Him, and in return, used of Him to transform their world. How like them are we?

So how would life change for us if we were to simply answer His call with those words, "Here I am?" How would that which makes up our world, our families, professions, ministries change? He calls your name and mine right now. Do we seek a hiding place from Him, or our place in Him? When Jesus walked with the two on the Emmaus road, Scripture says that when they reached the home of the two, "He made as if He would go on"....without them. Within their hearts, they heard His silent call. They invited Him in. Here He was...and here they were. It's the same for you and me. Does He go on without us, without you...or do we, you, go on with Him? "Here I am Lord." Can we say it?

Blessings,
Pastor O