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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
I wrote this Sunday morning and thought I'd save it for Thursday...
I do not mind showing up to church on our coldest day since spring and being an audience of one listening to our magnificent organist play Morning has Broken and Here I Am Lord on the piano.
The latter song has been played for me at every installation service and my original ordination service nine years ago almost to the day. Mr. Rogers passed away my freshmen year of college and the entire campus mourned. I mourned especially for a childhood hero and someone I'd grown up hearing was a Presbyterian pastor. At some point a couple years later, I was given the book, "Is it I, Lord?" and it got me thinking about ministry again. I guess I figured if the ministry had room for a quiet clean cut rebel saint like Fred at one end of the spectrum, it might have room for a not so quiet or saintly or clean cut rebel like me at the other.
I'm grateful for a calling that is so deep and wide that I can share it with someone like that, that we could both say, "here I am, Lord." That we all can. Next time you sing this, I hope you'll think about how different we can be, how flawed, how young or old, and we can all answer, "here I am."
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