30 Favourite Things #22

There has been quite a variety of experiences or special things in this collection of “30 favourite things” — life changing or life-impacting things during my fiftieth year.  When I first began writing these entries, I obviously didn’t have a specific plan or order of importance in the posting of these things.  They’ve just sort of unfolded — not necessarily even in order of thought… I’ve just written about what’s come to mind on any given day.  

To have our boy, Timothy, be called to be a missionary was not a surprise to me.  I’ve known all his life that God had a work and a purpose for this boy’s life and therefore, it’s been a bittersweet thing to always know that he would be serving in places I’ll likely never see, experiencing things I never have nor will ever experience — and humbly I say, receiving a sort of blessing and joy I will never know.  But I do know this — to be his mother is my great honour and to pray for him is my joy.  And so, during this, still my fiftieth year, my sweet joy has been to think of, pray for and hear from our Timothy.

One of the greatest gifts the Lord has given this mother is to have a son
willing to, as Jim Elliot said, “give up what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot lose.”  Praise the Lord.

So Send I You

So send I you to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing,
So send I you to toil for Me alone.So send I you to bind the bruised and broken,
O’er wand’ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,
To bear the burdens of a world aweary-
So send I you to suffer for My sake.

So send I you – to loneliness and longing,
With heart a-hungering for the loved and known;
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one,
So send I you – to know My love alone.

So send I you – to leave your life’s ambitions,
To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
To labor long and love where men revile you,
So send I you – to lose your life in Mine.

So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend, tho’ it be blood, to spend and spare not-
So send I you to taste of Calvary.

*After many years, Miss Clarkson added to the hymn, writing verses that reflected the trials, and the joys, of God’s call on the lives of his children. As she matured she recognized that she was sent out to minister to others, not in isolation, but in triumph.

So send I you – by grace made strong to triumph
O’er hosts of Hell, o’er darkness, death, and sin,
My name to bear, and in that name to conquer-
So send I you, My victory to win.

So send I you – to take to souls in bondage
The word or truth that sets the captive free,
To break the bonds of sin, to loose death’s fetters-
So send I you, to bring the lost to Me.

So send I you – My strength to know in weakness,
My joy in grief, My perfect peace in pain,
To prove My pow’r, My grace, My promised presence –
So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.

So send I you – to bear My Cross with patience
And then one day with joy to lay it down,
To hear My Voice, “Well done, My faithful servant –
Come share My throne, my kingdom and My crown.

“As the Father hath sent Me….. so send I you.”

E. Margaret Clarkson – words
John W. Peterson – music