Summons

We used a hymn as a launching point for devotionals. The hymn comes from The Faith We Sing and is number 2130 called “The Summons”. It goes like this:

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Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?

Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?

Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known?

Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

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Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?

Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?

Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?

Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

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Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?

Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?

Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,

and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

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Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?

Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?

Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around,

through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

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Lord Your summons echoes true when You but call my name.

Let me turn and follow You and never be the same.

In Your company I’ll go where Your love and footsteps show.

Thus I’ll move and live and grown in You and You in me.

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Is is a frightening hymn. The first line is “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?” I am a missionary. Called by God and I listened. But the answer to this question is not so easy. 

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The answer is “Yes Lord. But...” 

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I struggle mightily with this. I don’t know if I say yes to follow God or to show others that I follow God. That “but” hangs me up. I don’t just say yes. Just saying yes is scary and not just for myself but for all who are called. God never calls you to keep doing what you’re doing which means you have to change something and that’s hard.

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Perhaps the rest of the hymn is needed to alleviate this fright. But the second verse is only more scary. Can I leave myself behind? Can I care for those who are cruel just like I care for those who are kind? Can I put myself at risk in dangerous places for God? This call is not a simple one but one that is dangerous.

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The third verse is still too frightening to bear.

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Lord can I even let the blind see? How can I set the prisoners free? And isn’t kissing the leper dangerous again? I cannot heal them. What can I really do? And this is the problem. The entire hymn has 14 questions in it. I have already responded with 7 of my own.

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Yes Lord but...

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But there is more. There is the sweetest verse left. The fourth verse, and in my mind the last verse for the fifth is to be our response but it is clearly not mine. But the fourth verse? It is so sweet. 

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“Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?”

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My God, why should I love this person that says “yes Lord, but...”? who says “can I even do what you ask of me”? How can I quell the fear inside of me when your call is what gives me fear? And how can I hope to reshape such a broken world?

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“Will you love the “you” you hide?”

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You see I hide these doubts these “buts” these “I don’t knows”. I don’t respond with “Here I am Lord. Send me.”

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But then I remember the prophets of old. I remember Isaiah responding with those words “Here I am! Send me!” but I remember that Isaiah is not the rule in the Bible but the exception. I remember Moses saying that he could not speak well and would not be a good servant. I remember prophet after prophet trying to say no. Jonah, who tried to run away from his call but was forced to follow it anyway.

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“Yes Lord, but...” doesn’t seem so bad any more.

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Doubts are not so bad. Doubts are Biblical.

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So yes Lord, I can love this hidden me because I know you do. Yes Lord, I can heal the sick because you have called me to. Yes Lord, I can leave myself behind and enter into the dangerous places because you have called me. Yes Lord, I will go because you are with me.

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Amen