For Such a Time as This? Purim in the Context of Now.

A good friend called today. We were talking about his Skid Row ministry and how it is thriving. I laughed and reminded him that just about nine months ago he called me because some internet preacher had encouraged him to buy some property and head for the hills because it was time to leave the cities.

I am so relieved that he didn’t go but instead chose to remain with those to whom he has been called to minister.  Besides–no way is he cut out for farm life and the staying put that the caring for livestock naturally demands. He isn’t cut from that cloth. My friend is a natural evangelist and a city boy whose ministry requires that he be a city boy. Can you imagine a city evangelist taking care of cows out in the middle of Texas?

What does it mean to be called “for such a time as this”? As we see in the Book of Esther, God doesn’t always place us in cozy situations where it is easy to keep His laws–sometimes (usually), we are born in exile into a Torah-unfriendly world where we must live and be a light. Sometimes living in exile even means that we are not always able to live as we desire. Ask Nehemiah, the King’s cupbearer–daily standing in the court of a ruthless pagan king and entrusted with his cup day and night 24/7/365. How about Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego–forced to go to Babylonian schools and learning the ways of Babylon yet coming out wise, learned and faithful even to the point of facing a death sentence. I lament at how difficult it can be at times and do understand why so many observant Jews gather together into communities where it is possible to run their own lives as closely to God’s laws and timetables as humanly possible whilst in exile. But are they reaching the world?

What of the rest of us who are called to be salt and light in the world? We, like Esther, were also born for such a time as this and it is error to have our eyes more on survival than on whatever Kingdom jobs have been given to us. My friend started in Hollywood and ended up homeless on Skid row and now that is where he is called to serve–ministering in both worlds as only he is equipped to do. What if he buys a plot of land, as some encourage him to do, and goes out to live in the wilderness? Who then ministers to the poor, needy, widowed, orphaned and oppressed on Skid Row? Is one man’s survival worth all the souls he could impact in the days, months, years or decades left before he might meet his end in the city? What exactly is our calling, to ourselves or to the lost?

Esther said, “If I perish, then I perish.” Esther needed to get out of the fear-based survival mindset and had to become community-minded. We all need to be community-minded. Community can’t be had with cows, sheep, goats, and chickens out on the back forty unless that is where we are specifically called to be–and some people are. We each need to be doing our jobs when the Master returns, or what excuse will we have when all we can return to Him is the talent we buried?

Dying is not dreadful. Dying where we aren’t supposed to be, and while we are not doing what we are called to do is dreadful. Find that thing and do it–whether you are the enduring mom and dad just trying to get your own kids raised right, or, like my friend, ministering on Skid Row or just whatever it is that needs doing. Our sphere of influence isn’t important. The number of people hanging on our every word is almost irrelevant. Our safety is also unimportant if that safety comes at the cost of the people we were supposed to be there for–but abandoned for the sake of our own skin and out of service to our own morbid and faithless fears.

I once heard a YouTube personality state that we have only two choices—run to the country or compromise. But he was wrong. There is also the third choice of standing firm. Maybe we die, and maybe we don’t, but the true church thrives on persecution.

God isn’t done reaching out to the people in the cities. When we moved from rural Missouri to Idaho Falls, people told me that I would die when the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Oh well, big deal. Survival isn’t the point of our lives in Messiah’s service. Better to die doing what I was called to do than to live where I have become useless and unprofitable.

I was proud of my friend for not giving in to those who would have him be “just like them.” There will always be people who have made certain decisions who, in order to justify their own choice, will try to recruit and scare everyone else into making that same choice (ever have a friend deny Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah? That’s your prime example right there). But if we are truly called, and doing what we are called to do, then we don’t need to recruit anyone to be exactly like we are. We can do our job and equip and encourage others to do theirs. There will never be another me and there will never be another you. You can’t do my job and I can’t do yours, and neither of us can do our jobs if we are not where we are supposed to be.

So, take it easy. Do what you are being called to do and go where you are being called to go. There are a bunch of wannabe prophets and teachers and personalities out there playing a fiddle that you don’t need to dance to.

Don’t be so afraid to die that you miss your calling. You were born for such a time as this.

Happy Purim.