Reflections on Isaiah 6:8

“Here am I. Send me.” Just five words. Five simple words. However, if spoken in heartfelt sincerity, they can be among the most dangerous (and most freeing) words on the planet. If you say these words, and really meant it, God will send you. You may not know where, and you most likely won’t know why, but He will send you.
I’ve had to ask myself lately if these are words I’m really ready to say. More to the point, am I willing to say them? After all, willingness is implied in the first three of these words. “Here am I.” As if to say, “I’m willing, I’m available, I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be.” These words require no small amount of courage to say with any degree of sincerity.
Then there’s the second part: “Send me.” Almost feels like asking for, begging for the unknown. It really seems counterintuitive. Send me into uncertainty. Send me into potential danger. Send me into harm’s way. More to the point, send me into the brokenness of the world, into the midst of the hurting, wounded hearts of a fallen world.
Who actually wants that kind of life? What kind of person requests it? I’ll tell you who – someone who has truly experienced the life-changing love of Christ. One who knows that transformation is not only possible, but necessary if this world is to have any sense of hope at all. One who knows that the shift in heart that they have experienced can change this world, even if it’s just one heart at a time.
I’ve spent a lot of time immersed in selfishness, under the guise of “drawing closer to God.” There are many who use church as a spiritual filling station, topping off the tank before embarking on another week. Let me offer something I’ve learned. If you want a heart that is consistently full of the love of Christ, then you have to continually empty it. The more you empty yourself by drenching others in His love, the more your own heart will overflow, allowing you pour out even more, bringing even more overflow, and that cycle will go on, and on, and on. But, the cycle has to start somewhere, and it starts here:
“Here am I! Send me!”