For Such a Time as This

As a boy, my mother often told me the story of her pregnancy and my birth. She reminded me that although I am her oldest child, she was pregnant once before me. Mother's first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.

Mother was pregnant with me during the 1960 presidential campaign. John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon were the candidates. Evangelical Christians across the United States were alarmed at the possibility of a Roman Catholic president. The eschatology of the day featured Roman Catholicism prominently. Preachers and students of the Bible believed that the Roman Catholic Church would be the arch enemy of the true bride of Christ. They feared that a Catholic president would be the pope's puppet, leading toward suffering, the great tribulation, and the culmination of all things.

My pregnant mother confided to her own mother, my grandmother. My grandmother, who had given birth to all of her children in the midst of the Great Depression in the mountains of impoverished Appalachia, told mother, "I don't know that I could bring a child into a world like this."

That fear drove my mother to her knees. She fled to God's Word in prayer. Reading in the book of Esther, mother found God's comfort.
     "Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14).

Mother immediately knew that God had a plan for her unborn child's life, that His hand was upon me, and that He would use me. Throughout my life, mother has often reminded me of this promise. The promise has given me courage, boldness, and purpose for living in the midst of dark and discouraging seasons of life. The promise has motivated me toward conquest when the task ahead appears insurmountable.

I know that God has purpose, design, intention, and direction. Life is leading somewhere... to Him. Fulfillment is found somewhere... in Him. How I live matters. Living to please God, a life well-lived for His glory, is important.

God made you too. No matter how random and confusing the path may be, He is pursuing you. He has purpose for your life. He made you to know, love, and serve Him in this life, and spend eternity with Him in heaven. Relationship with God gives purpose, order, and meaning to an otherwise chaotic existence. Know Him. Pursue intimacy with God. Let Him fill you with His fulness so that you may become His agent of grace in a broken, sin-cursed world... "for such a time as this."