Send Me

    Lat week was Welcome Week at OBU, and my role couldn't look more different than it did last year. A year ago I was a nervous freshman embarking on a completely new chapter in life, all on my own. Now, I'm experiencing it all from an outside perspective and walking alongside some of my best friends I didn't even know a year ago. I get the special and unique opportunity to love some girls a little extra and experience this first year with them. 

    As I think about this next year, the verse that keeps coming to mind is Isaiah 6:8. 

    "Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking:
    Who will I send? 
Who will go for me?
    I said:
Here I am. Send me."

   

 This verse has been present in the back of my mind, and the more I think about it, the more I pray it's true for my life. Regarding the context of the verse (which is just as important as the verse itself), the Lord is commissioning Isaiah, and getting ready to send him to see King Ahaz. Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, and declared himself unworthy to sit in the presence of the Lord and His seraphim. A seraphim flew to Isaiah and touched his lips with a burning coal, and declared "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." (6:7) These series of events led up to Isaiah's commissioning. 

    The thing that keeps flooring me about this passage is that Isaiah has zero hesitation. He stepped up to the plate, probably without fully knowing what he was getting into. I pray that I have this type of courage in my daily life, and when sharing the Gospel with others. 

    Over the past few days, I've have multiple situations where I'm just completely thrown into them on a whim, and some of them have even been pretty stressful. There's a lot of action, and most of the situations I'm not particularly prepared for. After running around during these moments, I look back on them with immense gratitude. Partially that all parties involved were okay, but also for the calmness that I attained. I know that it wasn't my own doing that helped me remain calm, it was the Lord in me, and His Spirit working through me. 

    This also leads me to keep thinking of Isaiah. In these moments, there is zero hesitation about what I'm supposed to do, or if I'm supposed to help. I immediately jump up and begin helping wherever I'm needed. And I don't say this to brag on myself, but to point out why I hope this verse remains true. I pray that in any and every situation the Lord has placed me in, I would have zero hesitation. I pray that I would look back on these times with gratitude for the strength the Lord gave me, and the knowledge on how to move forward. 

    In stressful situations or times where people are counting on me, I recite to myself 2 Timothy 1:7:

"For the Lord did not give us a spirit of fear, 

but of power, love, and sound mind."

    It's so incredibly easy to get overwhelmed, but when I tell myself this, I'm reminded that it's not by my own strength. I don't have to know the answers, and I can trust that the Lord will work it out in His time. At times, the most I can offer people is a comforting presence during a hard time. That's why it's so important to know that it's never by my own doing, but by the Spirit of the Lord in me. 

    I will admit, sometimes the "sound mind" part is harder than others. But what that has come to mean for me is the "peace that surpasses all understanding". All the noise in my brain is quieted, and I trust what the Lord is doing. I know that it's not up to me, and I don't have to have everything figured out. I can trust that the Lord is directing my paths and that His plan is so much better than anything I could come up with.