For Such A Time As This!

I’m a sucker for a powerful story!
Aren’t you?

The story – even if you know the ending – that catches you in the throat.
That perhaps scares you a little.
Finds you open-mouthed when you don’t think anyone is looking.
That holds you, gripped, to the very last phrase.

I believe we’re living in a time of Extraordinary Stories.
Stories which take seemingly-ordinary people… living through extreme circumstances.
And cause them to do life-shifting things.
To bless and lift the lives of others.

Stories which show that each of us is not necessarily here by accident…
Having these difficult pandemic things ‘done to us’.

Stories which show that – maybe, just maybe – we (me and you) were BORN for these times.
Born to learn tough lessons that we needed to learn.
Born to take extraordinary actions that only we could take.

That we were born…
“For Such A Time As This”!

Have you ever considered that?

Pondering this possibility today…
I came across a story that I haven’t read for donkey’s years (why do we say that?)

It’s a true story.
Penned so many millennia ago, we’re tempted to think that it’s a myth.

It’s a story of planned genocide, mass extermination, by a rising politician; a powerful courtier.
Haman. That’s his name.

It’s a story of a people fingered out for persecution by those accumulating power.
(And the echoes of the 1930’s in Europe are chilling.)

But it’s also a story of a beautiful woman of extraordinary courage.
A woman who just happened to be married to the head of state.
Favoured. As long as she remembered her minimal place in the scheme of things.

A woman who is approached by her beloved father, Mordecai – the man who had adopted her.
The man who has discovered the ruthless plot.
And he asks his precious daughter to plead for the lives of countless men, women and children.

And here’s the punchline, delivered early in the story.
Her daddy looks at her, and says:
”Who Knoweth Whether Thou Art Come To The Kingdom…
For Such A Time As This?”

But here’s the twist.

The law states that nobody – nobody! – can approach the Royal Inner Sanctum… without a personal invitation.
And any failure to observe this law… is punishable.
By death.

The woman has a name, of course.
”Esther”.
A name known and recounted by generations and by millions worldwide.

What does she do?
This Esther?

In a culture where women are not there to provide advice; to speak openly…
She puts her life at risk.
She approaches her husband. Her king.

And asks that she be allowed to prepare a celebratory banquet.
A banquet to which she invites just one single high-ranking official.

Haman.

Well, the plot twists and turns.
And I’m going to leave you to discover where this journey takes each of the key players.

But the story is that well known.
You just need to type “For Such A Time As This” into Google.
And you’re right there.

There arise extraordinary times in the journey of mankind.
Painful times.

it seems that every generation is made to live through them.
Whatever the media says…
These times are not “Unprecedented”.

But each time, ordinary people are thrown up from the crowd.
Called to act in extraordinary and selfless ways.

Whether inside, or outside, of business.
They reach out, and start living lives that impact a wider community.
They use their skills to live for something bigger than themselves.

They are here.
Born not by coincidence.

The question is almost too audacious to ask.
Almost too frightening to face up to.

The question is this…
Is that you?
Is it possible that you are called to live – and work – for something bigger than…
“My Success. My Accomplishment. My Accumulated Stuff”?

Are you prepared to rise to the probability…
that YOU have been born…
to carry out your work…
”For Such A Time As This”?