The Summons

Today is the official closing day of my first semester at TTC. We had a closing ceremony, and we sang a song titled "The Summons". This song left a great impression on me. Nice song and great lyrics... Really made me ponder...
You can check the video below...




The Summons

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?

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?

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?

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?

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 grow in you and you in me.


Following GOD is not easy.
It takes daily commitment on the renewing of 'me': my characters, my understanding, my thought, my deeds, my everything.
To let go my dream, ambition, and plan.
To not have control of me and my future.
To let go of the 'me' and let God shape me to become the 'me' that I never expected.
It can be scary... but it is amazing... to see how God has brought me here and now. Sometimes I do not dare to think where God will bring me, because I know that it is beyond me.

The song also reminds me of my quiet times a few days ago. Let me quote Oswald Chamber's "My Utmost of His Highest" (10 Nov):
-After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, “God has called me for this and for that,” you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.
I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, “Lord, this causes me such heartache.” To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy “world within the world,” and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being “frost-bitten.”-

For me, to follow God means to never have plans for my life and to let God plans for me. It sounds crazy, because people would ask me, "What will you do next?". Usually I will answer, "I hope to be able to study further, my passion is in teaching, so long-term plan is to be a lecturer in a Bible School in Indonesia."
Can you see the 'me' in my answer? MY passion, MY plan, MY hope. Not HIS plan or what HE wants me to do. I sometimes think I should just answer, "I am not sure yet. I leave it to God. He will let me know in His time." Well... I guess I'm too proud give that kind of answer.
I need to constantly remind myself to be open to His ways and His will. It is, of course, still possible that I will never be a lecturer, or I will not serve God in Indonesia.

One thing I believe: I can be anything and anywhere, as long as it is what God wants me to be. LORD, keep my heart always open for YOU and YOU alone!