Genesis 22:1

Now it was after these things that God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham.”

“Hineni,” he said.   ~(Tree of Life Version)

What are the biggest questions of life?

What is the greatest call?

And what is our best response?

I believe the two most vital questions come from Jesus:

“Who do you say that I am?” and “Do you love me?”

Each of us, sooner or later, in this life or the next, must deeply respond to Jesus’s “Who do you say that I am?” And for those of us who have already given a heart-felt answer, we likely need to be reminded of just who He is.

Once Jesus’s identity is settled through faith within us, we need to answer His “Do you love me?” If we have indeed acknowledged that He is the great, compassionate, merciful, loving, sacrificial, creating, powerful, almighty I AM, hopefully we may be able to answer, perhaps with trembling, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” (John 21)

After this comes Jesus’s challenge/call/command:

“Feed my sheep.”

Minister to my image-bearers. Do unto others as I’ve done to you~in radical equality, wash their feet, show them God, put their needs before your own, teach them, bring my healing and wholeness, overflow with the love of God all over them.

And what is our best response?

“Hinneni.”

This was Abraham’s response, in Hebrew of course, and can be translated as,

Here I am, your servant. I am at your disposal. Tell me what you want me to do!

This is the standard biblical reply. Virtually all of life and all of Scripture, once you take notice, is call and response. From eons ago God calls, “Let there be light!” And there was light. So the very beginning of the world is the result of God’s call. God calls and the world suddenly comes into existence. Much later, Mary responds to God’s incredibly heavy call to bring His Word incarnate into our world with, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Call and response is the most fundamental structure of our lives.

We are constantly being called by God to give the reply “Hinneni”~”Here I am”, which signals our utter openness to God’s command. In all reality, this is the only response to God that makes any sense at all–complete surrender to His omni-everything! What else is there? Besides our pointless, futile fighting for our own way.

With each unique situation in life, there are multiple calls, therefore, a variety of ongoing responses within hinneni specific to the circumstance before us, as God’s reality is constantly unfolded before us in concert with our willingness, or lack thereof, to answer and act accordingly.

What is God asking of you?

How are you responding?

• “Who do you say that I am?”
• “Do you love me?”
• “Feed my sheep.”
• “Hineni.”