Here Am I

Read

Isaiah 6:8-10 "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!' He said, 'Go and tell this people: "Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving." Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.'"

Think

Here am I. Send me.

Five words and a volunteer. No follow up questions. Isaiah does not ask where he is going, how long he will be gone, what it will cost him, or whether it will work.

Then keep reading, because verses 9 and 10 tell you what he just signed up for. God sends him to people who will hear and never understand, who will look and never perceive. Translated: this assignment is going to be hard, and for long stretches of it, it is going to look like it is not working.

Isaiah said yes before he knew a single word of that.

How does anybody do that?

Think about how it works when a friend calls and says, “Get in the car, and I will explain on the way.” Whether you go has almost nothing to do with the plan, because you do not have the plan. It depends entirely on who is driving. There are people whose “trust me” means you are already grabbing your shoes. And there are people whose “trust me” means three follow-up questions and probably staying home.

You are not saying yes to the details. You are saying yes to the person.

Go back to the top of the chapter and you will find why Isaiah could answer that so quickly. He had seen the Lord, high and exalted. He had heard “Holy, holy, holy” shake the doorposts. He knew exactly who was asking.

That is the whole thing. Isaiah does not know the details. He knows the one asking. And when you actually know the one asking, the details stop being what decides it.

Now look at the words he uses, because they are smaller than you would expect. Here am I.

That is not a resume. He does not tell God what he is good at. He does not list his experience or the ways he might come in handy. He gives God a location.

That is all that is being asked of you today. Not competence, just presence. Here I am, in this house, at this school, on this team, in this friend group. Here is where I actually am. Send me from here.

A lot of us are waiting for a better version of ourselves to show up before we say anything to God. You will be available once you get more consistent. You will lead once you have it figured out. You will say something about your faith once you stop feeling like a hypocrite about it.

But God has never once asked for a finished person. He asked a question in a throne room and a man with a fresh burn on his lips said, I am right here.

So what is your yes actually for?

Probably not a stage. It is for a bus. A hallway between third and fourth period. A group project with the person nobody wants to work with. A lunch table. A text you send on a Tuesday night to somebody you can tell is not okay.

That is what sent looks like at fifteen. It is rarely dramatic. It is mostly available.

And notice what Isaiah was not given. He was not handed the whole picture. He got one step, it came with a warning attached, and he took it anyway.

You do not have to see the rest of the year to say yes to today.

Apply

Say one specific yes – Do not pray, "God, use me somehow" today. Pick something with a name, a place, or a time attached to it and say yes to that one thing before you go to bed. Then write "here am I" some place where you will actually see it before school tomorrow.

Pray

God, I have been waiting until I felt ready and I am starting to think ready is not coming. I do not know what this year holds and honestly some of it scares me. But I know who is asking. Here am I. Send me. In Jesus' name. Amen.