I don’t get to play the piano as often as I would like to, but one day last week I had a few minutes between lunch and nap time so I sat down at the piano. I love to just open up the hymnbook and just start playing whatever hymn catches my eye. Sometimes I sing along with my playing. Most of the time I just read the words in my head and play.

I find that often the words really speak to my heart – comforting, convicting, encouraging. This time I came to the song “So Send I You”. I hadn’t played or sung this song in a while and the words just about jumped off the page at me with their powerful message.

In our western civilization we have become accustomed to a cushy lifestyle. We complain about the silliest things – too long of a lineup in the store, our favourite  _______ being out of stock, a headache, having to wait four hours in the hospital E.R. (some people wait days to see a doctor), not being able to book the cottage we always go to, too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter. We have come to think of ourselves as entitled to a life of ease. We want everything to go our way.

The truth is that it’s in the difficulties of life that we grow. Our relationship with the Lord deepens, our compassion for others expands, the rough edges of our personality get smoothed out a little. We don’t vote for trials, but often they are the door to blessing. One of the hardest times in my life happened when I was 22. My fiancé of four years told me he no longer loved me or wanted to marry me. The bottom dropped out of my world.

BUT, and this is important, God gave me a better husband than the one I originally thought I would have. I would repeat that trial ten times over to get my husband. Not only that I can remember such sweet times of being close to the Lord and relying on Him alone for strength to get through that day. Those are times I wouldn’t trade. The valleys are so difficult but without them we wouldn’t have the sweetness of the mountain tops.

Being a pastor’s wife is not always easy. I wouldn’t trade my position, but sometimes there is hurt. People misunderstand you or even worse your husband. They say hurtful things. Sometimes it feels like no one is listening or wants help. You watch in pain as people make wrong decisions. There are wonderful times of fellowship and friendship, but in the times of hardship it can be hard to keep going.

The key is that have to remember that we are no better than Jesus. He told His disciples that if He was persecuted they would be also because the servant is not greater than his lord. “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” John 15:20

These words were such a good reminder to me that what I do is for the Lord, and since He knows what I’m experiencing He can give the comfort and strength I need.

So send I you to labour 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 wandering souls to work, to weep, to wake
To bear the burdens of a world a-weary
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 kin and kindred, friend and dear one
So send I you to know My love alone

So send I you to leave your life’s ambition
To die to dear desire, self-will resign
To labour 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, though it be blood to spend and spare not
So send I you to taste of Calvary

“As the Father hath sent me, so send I you”

E. Margaret Clarkson

In researching this post I came across the testimony of the woman who wrote this song. You can read it here and be blessed.

 What songs or verses encouraging you to keep doing what God wants you to do?