Send Me!

Try to imagine the full majesty and glory of God.

Now try to comprehend the full magnitude of every sin you've ever committed.

Next, imagine standing before all of God's glory with all your sin piled up around you.  Could you even stand?  Or would you collapse to your knees?

If you can imagine that, you've just imagined how Isaiah felt in Isaiah 6:  completely unworthy to stand before the LORD.

Isaiah saw "the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple" (Isaiah 6:1).  In Isaiah 6:5, he responded to God's glory by exclaiming, “Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Now imagine all that filth, those vast piles of trash, just instantly burning away as the almighty God says, "You are forgiven."  And as soon as He speaks those words, He follows them up by asking who would serve Him, as in Isaiah 6:8:  'And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”'

After all of this, how could we not share in Isaiah's response:  "Here I am!  Send me." (Isaiah 6:8)?

The only question that should remain is where He is calling each of us to go and what He is calling us to do.  Pray for a neighbor?  Love a friend?  Love an enemy?  Just share the love of God with everyone?  Yes to all of these, and to many more specific things that God has in store for each of us.

It may be scary to step up to serve God, but when we think of all He has done for us, it seems so much smaller and less intimidating by comparison.  I hope that can inspire us all to say, "Here I am!  Send me."

Inspired by the sermon "Hot Lips and Heartburn" by Pastor Tim Gierke at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Omaha, NE on Oct 2, 2016.