Maybe we can all remember that first real time when we surrendered our will over to God’s. I remember well and it happened over a period of a few months.
In 1979, I graduated from High School in Zambia, and was returning to the United States to attend college. On our way home, we stopped in Israel to sightsee. As my parents were, we had to attend church, even on vacation!
We attended a small international English speaking church in the old city of Jerusalem. It was there that we met Ruth, an American missionary. She invited us to her home for lunch: a small cottage on the hill over-looking the old city. Ruth had just received a cassette tape of a song called, “Whatever It Takes” and asked us to listen to it’s beautiful word and melody.
That was in June and in November; my father had been asked to be the president of the National Missionary Convention. My sister, mom and I were to sing before he spoke. From the time my mom heard that song, she was determined that we should sing it.
My heart and soul rebelled for; I could not sing those words. The words were:
There's a voice calling me From an old rugged tree And it whispers draw closer to me Leave this world far behind
there are new heights to climb
And a new place in me you will find.
Take my houses and land
change my dreams and all my plans
for I'm placing my whole life in your hands
Let the disappointments come Lonely days without the sun
lonely days without the sun
If through sorrow more like you I become.
Take the dearest things from me
if that's how it must be
to draw me closer to thee.
And if you call me today to a land far away
If through sorrow more like you I become.
For whatever it takes to draw closer to you Lord
That's what I'll be willing to do
For whatever it takes to be more like you
That's what I'll be willing to do
I'll trade sunshine for rain comfort for pain
Oh that's what I'll be willing to do
For whatever it takes, for my will to break
Oh that's what I'll be willing to do.
My mom proceeded to buy the background tape and her and my sister began practicing while I was in college. And, for three months, I struggled, and prayed and agonized over the fact that my will would not submit to that one thing He might require of me.
My dreams at that point were to go back to Africa as a missionary. I had no early possessions except what was in my suitcase. So those words were not the problem. What tripped me up were: I’ll trade sunshine for rain, comfort for pain. In my seventeen-year-old mind, I KNEW that if I sang that song that God would give me cancer and I would die! And, if I sang these words without meaning them, I would be lying to God and to others.
Finally, my will lost the battle and I gave in to God and said, “Whatever it takes to draw closer to you, Lord. That’s what I’ll be willing to do. And, if that is cancer, then I submit to your will.”
Soon after, I had a physical and was pronounced to be in perfect health!
That November, before God and 6000 people, I stood with my mother and sister and sang “Whatever It Takes.” And I meant every word.
At the end of the convention, I went forward with 299 others, to give my life to serving God on a foreign field. It was a powerful moment: to stand with so many and be prayed over as we committed our lives in service to the Lord.
Yet, what sealed that decision and enhanced the moment even more, was the choice I had made to sing those words; to say, “God, whatever it takes for you to make me into the woman you desire and can use, that is what I am willing to do!”