I often wonder if I would be willing to drop everything and follow God. As I sit in the comfort of my home, surrounded by my things, I think, “of course I would!” But would I? Would I have the guts to follow God?
To be honest I’m afraid of what true surrender looks like. I enjoy my stuff, and there are certainly days I can’t imagine giving them up. It’s one thing to be a leader like Moses. Someone who, in a sense, got fame and glory. He was The Man. But what if that wasn’t the mission God wanted to give you? What would you do then? Would you volunteer?
Because that’s what Isaiah did.
Isaiah was eager to obey God. He didn’t even stop to ask who, what, when, where, or why. He just said, “send me.” It makes me wonder if Isaiah knew what he was getting in to. Did he even care?
In some ways Isaiah ended up with the short end of the mission stick. His job was to tell Israel they were going to be judged and punished. Talk about a job description! In fact, in my NIV Bible there are dozens of pages devoted Isaiah’s speeches dealing with Israel’s punishment.
That’s my dilemma though. I want to be obedient, but I also want an easy assignment. I think that’s something most of us share in common. We all want to do something noble and exciting with our lives. We just don’t want it to cost too much. We all want to be the leader, and none of us want to give up our lives to do the grunt work.
No matter who we are, or what we believe, God will eventually ask us to do something radical and crazy. He will ask us to be different, to stand out, to make a choice. When God says, “whom shall I send?” I want to be like Isaiah and shout, “send me!”
