“Here, Mac, here, Lark. Come!” Our dogs love running the mountain and coming home, especially for food. Keith and I regularly practice “here, come” with Mac and Lark. “Here you are,” we say when they return home panting and grinning with pleasure. “Good boys!”

In a biblical sense, “here I am” is also good spiritual practice, one that took me years to discover.

“Here I am, Lord, Is it I, Lord?”

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me, I will hold your people in my heart. “Here I Am, Lord” by Dan Schutte Chorus

For thirty years, while teaching at Catholic Girls College Preparatory Schools, I sang “Here I Am, Lord” during Mass without knowing anything about the song. Come to find out, Dan Schutte wrote it for a friend’s ordination, using the stories of God’s calls to Samuel and Isaiah. The verses in Schutte’s song are from the point of view of God, who looks at our troubled world and asks whom He should send to help. The chorus that the congregation sings is their answer to God’s question: “Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?” The words sung outwardly did not enter my deaf mind.

In time—God’s time—I would hear those words and ask the same question: “Is it I, Lord?”

Samuel answered, “Here I am.”

Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 1 Samuel 3:4 NIV

I always find Samuel’s story a bit humorous, maybe because I recognize the misunderstanding. Initially, this verse seems straight forward: God calls, Samuel answers. Except the young boy Samuel thinks the voice belongs to Eli, the elderly high priest who Samuel serves. So, he runs to Eli and says, “You called me,” and Eli replies, “No, I didn’t, go back to bed.”

Then God calls Samuel again, and Samuel runs to Eli again, and Eli says again, “I did not call, go back to bed.” I can almost hear Eli’s exasperation at this point, can’t you? 

But God calls a third time. Samuel runs to Eli, who finally realizes what’s happening. God is calling Samuel! So, Eli tells him to go back to bed, but if he hears the call again, say, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” And that’s what happened: the beginning of Samuel’s prophetic calling. 

I’d like to think my response to God’s call—when I finally listened—was like Mary in her Magnificat: “My soul magnifies the Lord.” But frankly, I was more like Samuel, obedient but clueless as to Whom I really served. Or like Moses: “Here I am, but are You sure it’s me You want? No one will believe a former atheist, and I’m not good at this. Please send someone else.”

And God’s response to Moses and to us? “I will be with you.” The ultimate reassurance.

“Here I am. Send me.”

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!” Isaiah 6:8 NIV

The book of Isaiah has some of most beautiful, prophetic verses in the Old Testament, and Isaiah 6:8 is one of them. This verse captures the moment when Isaiah, seeing a vision of God and being forgiven of sins and made ready, hears the voice of God and offers himself to His service: “Here am I. Send me!”

Unlike God’s called prophets, we ordinary servants say, “Here I am,” then ask, “Is it I, Lord?” The ‘yes’ is what I experience while reading His Word in church. Or playing flute with the worship team. Or serving on the Women’s Ministry Team. Or helping my neighbors and praying for others. Good spiritual practice.

I cannot reverse my past disobedience—deafness, cluelessness, hesitation—but I can listen, trust, and boldly answer His gracious call.

“Here, Carole! Come!”

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