For such a time as this

Having kind of a stream of consciousness that I’m sharing with you today.

It started with a conversation I had with a friend this morning whose situation in life is extremely challenging from a lot of different angles but he remains calm and relentless in his ability to be a long suffering incredibly loving and encouraging caregiver. Upon reflecting on his comments I was reminded of a lesson I learned a while back that God does not waste a single thing in our lives.

About a decade ago I was introduced to a unique way of looking at God’s presence in the events of our lives. A friend shared something they were reading from a book wherein it was explained that when we are surrendered to God’s will in our lives, Jesus will take our disappointments and turn them in to divine appointments. He will, in time, open our spiritual eyes to see the “bigger picture” and the purpose for why we are in the time and place that we are. Often times the overwhelming challenges in our life bring us to a divine appointment: a way God uses us in circumstances where we realize no one else is so uniquely qualified.

Well that led me to another thought that connects me with just a small phrase of a scripture verse. It’s from the book of Ester in the Old Testament. The phrase is simply this, “. . . for such a time as this. . . ’ (Esther 4:14).

At this point in the story, Cousin Mordecai is explaining to Esther that there was a divine reason for her to end up in the harem of a foreign king. It may have seemed at first to be a disappointment for a Jewish peasant girl to be separated from her family, whisked away to the king’s harem, and be placed in the midst of many strangers and foreigners. Mordecai points out that there was a divine reason for her disappointment. It was to be in place “for such a time as this” in a position of influence and persuasion to be able to save the day for the Jewish nation. She found favor in the king’s eyes and in a critical moment of crisis for the Jews, drew his attention to an evil unjust plot to persecute and annihilate them. She saved the day because she was the right person in the right place at the right time to be God’s servant. There was a reason for her disappointment all along; it had a divine appointment hidden in it.

How often do we find ourselves in a “mess” wondering how the heck we got there and what we did to deserve such circumstances? I can’t tell you the number of times in either my own situation or other people’s situations that the theme of “for such a time as this” bubbles to the surface. We go through disappointment and hardship only to come the other side to recognize that God had a divine purpose and did not waste the hardship we went through. But oh, that is so hard to realize the first time when we are in the middle of the disappointment and have not yet had the revelation of the divine appointment yet.

I see three things that disappointments can lead to in the life of someone surrendered to Christ
1. They can bring us closer to God in our search for answers and solutions.
2. They can place us as the right person, at the right time, to be God’s servant for something we are totally out of tune with until the “aha” moment arrives.
3. They shape us to be the perfect person to minister to someone with similar experiences in the future (“the wounded healer” as Henri Nouwen would say).

As I listened to my friend this morning, he shared how his experiences in his youth shaped his attitude toward life to become the patient, caring, loving person that he is. When he was young he came to a point where he recognized that spending energy being angry at the world wasted a lot of time and emotions and never profited him anything. That realization, for him, was a milestone in his life. I believe (whether he realizes or not) that God took that decision and began to prepare him for “such a time as this.” He is by far the perfect fit to minister to and take care of his wife.

And I already know that once this crisis has passed in their life, God will have another “for such a time as this” for both of them. He will place them in a position as “wounded healers” to be able to say to someone, “I know how you feel, we went through the same thing and these are the lessons of hope and faith we learned on the journey."


Abba Father (“Daddy”)

Thank you for using the Bible to teach us that there is always some divine purpose for our lives as we surrender ourselves to you.
Thank you for preserving other peoples testimonies of your faithfulness in their lives to be an inspiration to mine.
Thank you for showing us purpose and glory for you in the midst of our sufferings.
Thank you for using the tragedies and calamities of life to position us to be vessels of your hessed to other people.