God, you have created me
to do you some definite service:
You have committed some work to me
which you have not committed to another.
I have my mission –
I may never know it in this life,
but I shall be told in the next.
Somehow I am necessary for your purposes.
I have a part in the great work;
I am a link in a chain,
a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for nothing.
I shall do good, I shall do his work;
I shall be an angel of peace,
A preacher of truth in my own place.
Fulfill your high purposes in me,
I am here to serve you, to be yours.
Amen .
– Meditation by Cardinal John Henry Newman
(via Called Today)
In the song by Casting Crowns “Who am I” it ends with a simple phrase at the end, “I am yours”. I think it’s a good song to talk about identity which is not based on our doing but on what God has done for us. I noticed how many of the college students at a recent camp connected with the song.
The phrase “to be yours” caught my attention in this prayer. Perhaps because as it talks about calling and service the prayer highlights another important dimension for us as human beings as well as people who consider ourselves followers of Christ – i.e. the significance of “becoming”. This becoming becomes a reality gradually as we find and fulfill our calling to serve him in our lifetime. 🙂
I lose sight of God easily, or may forget Him altogether, although I can always remember to talk about Jesus. But talking about Him and His Good News does not always sound sincere if my walk with God is not sincere. In this busy pace as student and “all of the above”, I fall easily. Part of me wants to be this, part of me needs to do that etc., but I never stop to think if my needs and wants are compatible with what God wants and needs of me.
As a young person, I am still searching for myself. I know who I am destined to be. But questions arise… Should I just throw everything aside and leave? Will things fall into place the way it should be? So many thoughts in my head. But as Cardinal Newman says, I may never know of my mission in life but somehow I am necessary. No matter how imperfect I maybe, I know I’m good for something.
At this point, I can only think of Jeremiah 1.5. I am “a prophet to the nations”, in my own unique way, just as others are. No matter how imperfect I have been, and no matter how many sins I have committed in the past, like every other baptised Christian made in the image of the living God, I am an “angel of peace” and a “pillar of truth”. But how? Literally?
I believe the answer(s) is just in front of me, looking at me straight in the eyes. By God’s grace, I will find it. I am here. Send me Lord! (Isaiah 6:5 – 8)