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

Of all the people in the Old Testament, the one I would most like to be, or have been, is Isaiah. He was close enough to the Lord in faith that he was given one of the most magnificent visions of God recorded in the whole Bible, right up there with John’s in Revelation, and he responded to God in perfect humility and dedication. And on top of that, he seems to have been happily married, and he involved his children in his ministry. Last Sunday I talked about hearing God, and this is a magnificent example of that. Isaiah not only heard what God said, he offered himself in response to it. His first response was, rightly enough, that he was totally unworthy to receive such a vision. Thinking that you are the perfect person for God to use is pretty well a guarantee that you are NOT that person, at least yet. Our qualifications to be used by God are all granted from His side, not anything we work up on our own. Paul points out that it is God Himself who qualifies us to receive and do all that He has planned. (Colossians 1:12) Isaiah lamented his own lack of purity, and God responded in a way that he could understand. (verses 6-7) God then issued His famous challenge, and Isaiah responded in the way that countless saints have down through the ages: “Here am I. Send me!” That sending might indeed be to the other side of the planet, as it was for my parents, or it might be to that person in the neighborhood, as it was for Cathy’s parents, but the point is to listen with a humble, obedient heart, doing whatever God indicates. If we do that, He takes care of everything else.

My own track record in this area is all over the place. I started out feeling like I was over-qualified! God had to strike that down pretty thoroughly. Then there was the question of whether I was hearing God, or simply wanted to go home, since I was born and raised in Japan. Then there was the issue of my trying to make things happen the way I thought they should, and that of course didn’t work. It was only when I submitted my sense of calling to God, since He had given it to me in the first place, that I abruptly found myself here in Omura, and I’ve been here ever since. I could never have worked it out that way! I wish I could say that I have stayed on track from 1981 on, but that would be an exaggeration. My focus has varied widely, sometime clearly on God and His purposes for me, and sometimes just living in this town that I love. Over time, things have changed in other ways as well. I am currently retired from the school teaching that enabled me, legally and financially, to be here in the first place, but I now have permanent residency, and I collect both American Social Security and Japanese national pension, so the financial end is covered as well. I don’t know what the future holds, but I have the conviction that God isn’t through with me, and I look forward to His plans.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the joy that welled up in me when I saw that this passage was coming up! Guide me in preparing and delivering what You want me to say from it on Sunday, so that all who hear may be challenged and encouraged, responding as You intend, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!