“So Send I You”


This poem, based on Jn 20:21, was written by Margaret Clarkson, who went to work as a teacher in the far north. There she experienced loneliness as a Christian, not finding like-minded people to share with. Then she realized that actually she was in the place where God wanted her to be, where He had sent her. When God says “Come out from among them” He is always calling us on to the place where He is already. He never sends us to a place He would not go Himself.

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’hung’ring 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 ambition,
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.