“For what
was I created?” or, “For such a time as this?”
was I created?” or, “For such a time as this?”
Our
majority culture as well as contemporary church culture will often encourage us
to explore the gifts and abilities that make us who we are and challenge us to
do those things for which we are uniquely created. That is, we are told to find
out who we are and the thing for which we were created. We are told that true
fulfillment in life is only found in doing those things for which we have been created
as if there was only one thing we could do. I have certainly espoused this
philosophy, and, indeed such an approach has validity.
majority culture as well as contemporary church culture will often encourage us
to explore the gifts and abilities that make us who we are and challenge us to
do those things for which we are uniquely created. That is, we are told to find
out who we are and the thing for which we were created. We are told that true
fulfillment in life is only found in doing those things for which we have been created
as if there was only one thing we could do. I have certainly espoused this
philosophy, and, indeed such an approach has validity.
However, today I
would ask us to consider another way of looking at these things. There are
times when we need to consider whether we have been made, “for such a time as
this.” In the ancient book of Esther (written in approximately 330 BCE),
Mordecai asks Esther to consider if it is not “for such a time as this” that
she has been made queen in the courts of King Xerxes (Esther4:14). This was the
appropriate question for her and may sometimes be the question for our lives.
We are placed in a world that needs truth and grace – justice and love – and
there are judicious times when you or I may be the perfect person to be the
expression of God’s love in our world. It is a question worth asking ourselves:
“Am I here for such a time as this?”