I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go

Was it coincidence that I chose this hymn (LDS Hymn 270 "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go") for choir rehearsal the week before the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang it in General Conference last week?  I don't believe in coincidence.  I believe I had a lesson to be learned from this hymn that needed to be drilled into my head in numerous ways.

Granted, the theme of "GO" has been weighing heavily on my mind as my husband and I transition into moving mode.  We're finally leaving sunny Arizona to head back to the wetness and gray skies of the Seattle area which is my beloved and much-missed home.  In fact, with luck, an offer will be going in on a home this very day.  My short little stubby fingers are triple crossed.

But as I was working out a simple arrangement of this hymn this week, another insight came to me...

My husband has been in very poor health over the last few years and trips to the emergency room are frequent, expensive and inevitably futile. Sometimes it gets exhausting and, yes, even depressing and (dare I say it?) annoying. While I was silently praying a woe-is-me lament over yet another trip to the emergency room, the lyrics of this piece came to my mind ("I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord..."), I was reminded that I have prayed for health for my husband -- in fact my entire ward held a fast for him once -- and yet for some reason, this is the pathway we're still on. If the Lord wants me to go to the emergency room over and over again to stand at my husband's bedside only to be sent home with no new results, then I'll go.  I know the Savior knows our circumstances and I simply have to submit my will to His greater wisdom. "So trusting my all to thy tender care, and knowing thou lovest me, I'll do thy will with a heart sincere; I'll be what you want me to be."  

This hymn is usually thought of as a missionary song.  I learned this week that it's also about embarking on  life's journeys.  If we have faith, we need never lament, fret, stress or worry.  We only need to go where He wants us to go, be what He wants us to be and say what He wants us to say.  

I'm good on the move to Washington.  I'm learning that I need to humble myself when it comes to the emergency room.  I'm thankful for the patience the Lord has with me, and for delivering a sweet hymn to my mind when I needed to learn an important lesson.