{"id":320,"date":"2016-10-04T19:14:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T19:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/messenger\/?p=320"},"modified":"2018-09-19T19:16:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T19:16:55","slug":"here-i-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/bible-study\/here-i-am\/","title":{"rendered":"Here I am"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember the Bible story of young Samuel?<\/strong>\u00a0He was sleeping in the temple when he heard the Lord call, \u201cSamuel! Samuel!\u201d The young Samuel said, \u201cHere I am!\u201d (1 Samuel 3:4). He thought his guardian, Eli, was calling so he ran to Eli again saying, \u201cHere I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

I imagine Samuel\u2019s mother had taught him to respond in that way when he was very young, even before he was sent to be raised in the temple under the guardianship of Eli.<\/p>\n

It is just one word in Hebrew:\u00a0hineini<\/em>. When it is a response to being called, it is usually translated \u201cHere I am\u201d or \u201cHere am I\u201d in the Bible. The phrase comes up frequently and it is worth close examination. It is more than a polite response that says, \u201cI hear you.\u201d It is a declaration that I am present, totally present to the one calling.<\/p>\n

Woody Allen once said, \u201cEighty percent of success is just showing up.\u201d The challenge is not only to show up, but to be fully present, to be mindful of who, where, and with whom you are.<\/p>\n

Pastors soon discover that words, even when quoting scripture, are never adequate in the face of tragedy. Words also pale into insignificance in the presence of great joy. What is most helpful at those times is personal presence. \u201cHere I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere I am.\u201d This phrase turns up other places in the Bible. Isaac called his son and Esau answered, \u201cHere I am\u201d (Genesis 27:1). When Jacob wanted someone to take a message to Joseph\u2019s brothers, he said to Joseph, \u201c\u2018Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.\u2019 He answered, \u2018Here I am\u2019\u201d (Genesis 37:1).<\/p>\n

Being totally present is hard! It involves being present in space but also being present in time, in the \u201cnow.\u201d My mind often wanders between anticipation for tomorrow and second-guessing my yesterdays. Saying \u201cHere I am\u201d means relinquishing my obsession with past and present and accepting who I am and where I am in the present. Here I am, at this precise moment in time: a moment that has never been before and will never be repeated in my life. It is, as it always is, a holy moment.<\/p>\n

Saying \u201cHere I am\u201d also involves being present within myself, identifying my emotions, owning my failures, confessing my sin, and accepting my strengths. Here I am, all of me, just as I am. I may not be where I wish to be nor where I pretend to be. I may not be where others wish me to be, but if I could be nakedly honest with myself, I could come out of hiding and answer, \u201cHere I am!\u201d<\/p>\n

There is one glaring spot in the Bible where the phrase \u201cHere I am\u201d is shockingly absent. In Genesis 3:9 after taking the forbidden fruit, the man and the woman hid from God. God called, \u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

God\u2019s call still rings through the world, \u201cWhere are you?\u201d God\u2019s question does not always come in words or even in clear categories of thought. More often it is a small echo of mystery, intangible and indescribable. Every human relationship and all of creation contains God\u2019s question, \u201cWhere are you?\u201d and yearns for a response. And each time we answer this persistent call with \u201cHere I am,\u201d we discover God\u2019s \u201cHere I am\u201d in response.<\/p>\n

We find that God may be more ready to say \u201cHere I am\u201d than we are. Isaiah 65:1 is especially telling. \u201cI was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, \u2018Here I am, here I am,\u2019 to a nation that did not call on my name.\u201d As Meister Eckhart said, \u201cGod is at home, it\u2019s we who have gone out for a walk.\u201d But if we return home\u2014that is, return to ourselves\u2014 then we return to the presence of God. There is a deep connection between learning to become totally present and learning to recognize the presence of God. When one becomes completely \u201chere,\u201d it is not far to recognize that God is \u201chere\u201d also.<\/p>\n

If \u201cHere I am\u201d is about finding one\u2019s self, it is also about finding one\u2019s task. When we say \u201cHere I am\u201d to God, it is not only self identity, it is a commitment to action. This is how the phrase feels when God called Moses. \u201cWhen the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, \u2018Moses, Moses!\u2019 And he [Moses] said, \u2018Here I am\u2019\u201d (Exodus 3:4).<\/p>\n

The same was true of Abraham. \u201cAfter these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, \u2018Abraham!\u2019 And he said, \u2018Here I am\u2019\u201d (Genesis 22:1). And, again, \u201cThe angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, \u2018Abraham, Abraham!\u2019 And he said, \u2018Here I am\u2019\u201d (Genesis 22:11). Jacob experienced the same: \u201cThen the angel of God said to me in the dream, \u2018Jacob,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Here I am!\u2019\u201d (Genesis 31:11).<\/p>\n

When \u201cHere I am\u201d is used this way as a response to the call of God, it is a declaration of willingness: \u201cI am ready to be of service.\u201d In the temple vision (Isaiah 6:8), God said, \u201cWhom will I send? Who will go for me?\u201d Isaiah\u2019s response was, \u201cHere am I! Send me!\u201d<\/p>\n

The most common prayers are \u201cHelp!\u201d and \u201cThanks.\u201d Think about letting yet your next prayer be \u201cHere am I\u201d with all that phrase means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is one glaring spot in the Bible where the phrase \u201cHere I am\u201d is shockingly absent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8,19],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-study","tag-bible-study","tag-bob-bowman"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}