The Summons

There is a song that's been following me on my journey this summer. It's one I'd never heard before coming to Virginia, and somehow it has found different moments to encounter me and move me over the past few weeks, and to shed light and put words to this wonderful journey I'm on.

It's called The Summons and it's lyrics go like this:

Will you come and follow me
If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown
In you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind
If I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
And never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
Should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
In you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see
If I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
And never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean,
And do such as this unseen,
And admit to what I mean
In you and you in me?

Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
If I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
And never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
To reshape the world around,
Through my sight and touch and sound
In you and you in me?

Lord, your summons echoes true
When you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
And never be the same.
In your company I’ll go
Where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow
In you and you in me.


There is something incredibly true and accurate about these words. Somehow, they get to the heart of everything I'm experiencing this summer. Mission truly does call one to go where she/he does not know and to never be the same as a result. It forces one to rely on God's willingness to answer prayer, because it puts those in mission in situations and circumstances in which they can no longer rely solely on themselves or on the people around them. Mission puts those called in contact with present-day lepers, prisoners, and the like, and asks of them to touch, and listen, and heal. Mission reveals parts of one's life that maybe are easier left undealt with; it asks those in mission to forgive themselves, to see themselves through God's eyes, and to be made whole and new in the love God freely offers all of God's children.

I can't begin to explain the amount of growth I've experienced as I journey alongside the people here in Winchester.

Most of all, mission puts a drive, a passion in those it calls to seek God whole-heartedly, to know God on levels they've never known God before, to be more obedient, more consumed, more connected, more in love than they've ever been. Being in mission has made every part of me long to let God in further, to let God's transformation take place in more areas of my life, to let God's joy fill everything I do, to let God's eyes and ears and hands and heart become my own.

I pray that this summer, that this beautiful opportunity to be and not just do mission, will not just be another experience to look back on fondly, but that it will be a catalyst for change in the entirety of my life and my identity as God's child. I pray the lessons I'm learning here, the dreams I am having here, the insights I am gaining, will shape who I am in a way that is irreversible.

I can't begin to explain how blessed I feel to be here, in this place, in this moment-- what a beautiful, eye-opening time in my life. I hope each of you, wherever you are, are seeing, and experiencing, and understanding God in new and exciting ways as well, because there are so many sides to our God, so many mysteries yet to be uncovered. How lucky we are to be let in (even if ever so slightly) on the beauty and wonder that is our God!

Peace and Love and Revelation,

Nicole