for such a time
photo by Stephanie Harvey @stephanieharvey
“If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)
Graduation weekend is taking place all over the country. Thousands upon thousands of students, young adults are turning the corner to the next chapter of their lives in what they will soon realize is “the real” adult world, not the pretend adult world they’ve been living at college.
This is not meant to be a slam on them because anyone who has turned that corner gets it. We think we are on our own because we are in our own apartments, not living with our parents or caregivers telling us what to do, but the reality is, most of us were still financially supported by someone else during those years, and that disqualifies anyone from understanding “the real” adult world to some degree.
When you no longer have a fallback to catch you when your dinner card is short cash because you purchased beer with your funds, or paying monthly rent is something you actually have to figure out, or when somehow, someway you have to make money now, life gets real, really quick. This is when real adulting begins, and it can be scary, and overwhelming, but it can also be fun and an incredible journey!
photo by: Vasily Koloda @napr0tiv
The scripture above from the book of Esther is one of my all time, hands down favorite verses from the Bible, but it is often tossed around and used without much thought to the original meaning or context in which it was said. It can mean: royal, chosen, or special. It is often quoted in reference to someone having power and favor, but in its original context, what does it truly mean?
Here is some historical context around this particular verse and the story of Queen Esther.
Esther lived in ancient Persia about 100 years after the Babylonian captivity. Her Hebrew name was Haddassah, which means "myrtle." When Esther's parents died, the orphaned child was adopted and raised by her older cousin Mordecai.
One day the king of the Persian Empire, Xerxes I, threw a lavish party. On the final day of the festivities, he called for his queen, Vashti, eager to flaunt her beauty to his guests. But the queen refused to appear before Xerxes. Filled with anger, he deposed Queen Vashti, and forever removed her from his presence.
To find his new queen, Xerxes hosted a royal beauty pageant and Esther was chosen for the throne. Her cousin Mordecai became a minor official in the Persian government of Susa.
Soon Mordecai uncovered a plot to assassinate the king. He told Esther about the conspiracy, and she reported it to Xerxes, giving credit to Mordecai. The plot was thwarted, and Mordecai's act of kindness was preserved in the chronicles of the king.
At this time, the king's highest official was a wicked man named Haman. He hated the Jews, especially Mordecai, who had refused to bow down to him.
Haman devised a scheme to have every Jew in Persia killed. The king agreed to his plan to annihilate the Jewish people on a specific day. Meanwhile, Mordecai learned of the plot and shared it with Esther, challenging her with these famous words:
"Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:13-14, NIV)
Esther urged all of the Jews to fast and pray for deliverance. Then, risking her own life, brave young Esther approached the king with a request.
She invited Xerxes and Haman to a banquet where eventually she revealed her Jewish heritage to the king, as well as Haman's diabolical plot to have her and her people killed. In a rage, the king ordered Haman to be hung on the gallows—the very same gallows Haman had built for Mordecai.
Mordecai was promoted to Haman's high position and Jews were granted protection throughout the land. The people celebrated God's tremendous deliverance, and the joyous festival of Purim was instituted. (learnreligions-book-of-esther)
In the verse Esther 4:14, Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, was actually scolding her because, to keep it simple, she had forgotten where she had come from. She forgot that she herself was a Jew. She was living in the king’s palace and had developed a self-preserving, what we might call today, “narcissistic” mindset.
Through those harsh words, he was reminding her that she had been chosen to set her own interests aside, and to let go of her own ambitions. She was to risk her life and her legacy with no guarantees of a positive outcome.
photo by: Austin Chan @austinchan
That’s the “for such a time as this” Mordecai challenged Esther to accept.
That’s the “for such a time as this” God also sets before you and me. The time where we set our own interests asside.
Many young people are walking across that stage this weekend, smiling for their loved ones who supported and cheered them on, grateful for the opportunity and the experience, but at the same time full of questions, full of excitement, and full of fear.
As long as there has been humans, there has been conflict.
I can’t say I fully grasp what today’s students think or feel upon graduating in this specific place and time of the history of the world, nor can I say I fully understand how they view life and their future compared to when I graduated, but I can say, human nature is and has always been the same. One commonality we all share: we all want to know we have a purpose, a reason for being. Most of us want to make a difference in this world, and to know our life matters.
“Your life is your story, and the adventure ahead of you is the journey to fulfill your own purpose and potential.” ~Kerry Washington
photo by Joanna Kosinska @joannakosinska
While your generation’s experiences are not what mine were, nor what your parents or grandparents were, I can attest to the fact that every generation has had their struggles, their challenges, their obstacles, politically, racially, economically, socially, and so on. As long as there have been humans, there has been conflict. It started in the garden and has carried on ever since.
None of that changes the reality that we all have a purpose for being here in this particular moment in time. The challenge is actually living life in order to find that purpose. This world wants us to believe that we have to figure it all out and know our purpose before we can live, before we can contribute to this world, or before we can commit to anything.
photo by Brett Jordan @brett_jordan
If I can share anything I have learned and was fortunate enough to have had pointed out to me when I was graduating from Purdue, it’s that we find our purpose and meaning by actually living life, diving right in, taking chances, taking risks, committing to a job, whatever. The trick is not buying into the lies that you can’t do anything or make a difference until you have it all figured out because guess what? You will never have it all figured out.
Truth is, as C.S. Lewis once said, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” As long as you have breath in your lungs, age is just a number. You should always be striving to be better, to do better, to be more.
We hear a lot today about the negative characteristics of young people, and, as in all generations past, there will be some who will not be positive contributors to society, but I believe we are blessed to have so many young people entering into the adult world who have the ability to do great things. I choose to have faith that there are plenty of young people who want to make this world a better place, and they are energized, excited, smart, and on fire for the Lord.
phot by: Chang Duong @iamchang
For those of us who have already passed them in years, it is our responsibility to encourage them and guide them as they seek to make their way and find their place. It’s our job to remind them that while we all can achieve great things; we are not all going to achieve greatness by the world’s standards.
I think one of the hardest lessons for me to learn and accept, was realizing that not all of us are destined for “greatness.” Most of us are just average people who will never do “earth shattering” things that bring about massive change in the world.
Most of us will never experience “greatness” as this world identifies and celebrates “greatness,” and that’s O.K. because what I have learned is that change or making an impact is much like a wave. A wave begins as ripples that gain energy. Those ripples develop into a chop and then they become waves over time; waves grow larger as they move through the water because once a ripple is created, there is greater surface area for the wind to interact with, resulting in the ripple developing into chop and a wave of increasing size and speed.
Some of us, most of us, are destined to be the ones who start the ripple that will gain the momentum and energy to create the waves that bring about change, and those are important roles to fill. Not everyone is created to be the wave, but we are all created to do what we can, where we can, and to do them with love. There is tremendous wisdom in the words of Mother Teresa when she said, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”
photo by: May Gauthier @maygauthier
Those of us who are ahead in years of today’s graduates, and the younger generations, let’s be the voice of hope, and encouragement, cheering them on as they learn to navigate this thing called life, not criticizing, not discouraging them, but lifting them up so they can become all their heavenly Father created them to be, for such a time as this.
God has given each of us a job, position, resources, education and more. He has opened opportunities to build His kingdom and share His love. He didn’t place you or me where we are so we could eat bon bons all day long or post selfies on social media. He’s placed us wherever we are because we are in the midst of a battle, a war. We are in the midst of a seismic conflict involving good versus evil and we each have a role.
“To miss a kingdom assignment because we’ve become too caught up in our personal kingdom is one of the greatest tragedies we could ever face. An entire nation was grateful for how Esther responded to Mordecai’s rebuke. Their lives were spared.”(Tony Evans)
Whether we are the destined to be the ripple or the wave, each one needs the other.
“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.” ~Fred DeVito
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