Here I Am

"And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am! Send me." (Isaiah 6:8)

The message can be put in a single line. Jesus is Lord, and he commissions us to go. And when a soul really hears it, something answers before the mind has caught up, and it answers in the words of Isaiah: here I am, send me.

Notice what Isaiah does not do. He does not ask where. He does not ask what the job is, or how long it will take, or whether he is qualified, or what the reception will be when he arrives. And it is a good thing too, because the answer God gives him afterward is bleak: go and tell a people who will not listen, and keep telling them until the cities are empty. Isaiah says yes before he knows any of that. That is what a yes is.

A conditional yes is not a yes. It is a negotiation wearing the costume of obedience. Send me, if the destination suits me. Send me, once I know the cost and approve it. Send me, when I feel adequate to it. God has heard all of those, and they are not what Isaiah said. The mission of God is to reconcile people from death into life in Jesus Christ, and he is still asking who will carry it, and the position is open. Answer before you know the details. The details are his to assign. The yes is yours to give.