For chapel this month, we were asked to bring songs that meant a lot to us or featured in our journey somehow. I chose “The Summons,” an old Scottish hymn, written by … I hadn’t heard of this song until about four or five years ago, when my buddy James came into the room gushing about a gem that he’d just discovered and was reworking.

For me, this song not only gets to the heart of the gospel—“to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19)—but it also encourages me to know that there are others who have with equal and more passion sought to live out their faith.

I hope it speaks to you, too. Wherever you may be on the journey.

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.

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