Are we important? Are we here for a reason? Are we here for a specific work? Are we here for a purpose?
Some people are born for big moments: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mother Teresa, company owners who provide jobs, not-for-profit CEOs who connect people with a heart for service with places where service is needed, Maya Angelou, Madam Curie, Sandra Day O'Connor and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Some of us are born for moments the free world might not even consider important: being a light in darkness, being attentive to people are often overlooked, giving time to someone who needs to be deeply seen and heard, raising a child, doing an honorable and able job of work, being financially responsible, delivering a meal to someone experiencing a difficult time, tutoring a child, teaching an under-employed person job-skills.
If you've never read the story of Esther in the Bible, I recommend it. And the 14th verse in the 4th Chapter of Esther that includes verse 14 which has been restated in this way: Perhaps this is the moment for which you were created. Esther risked her very life in a heroic effort to save her people, so hers was a big moment.
So your moment may be huge, terrifying and leading to important changes for a world desperately in need of inspired leaders and musicians and poets and able women (& men) doing work that is readily identified as "important".
Or your moments may be modest as you live Christ into the lives around you. If you are incarcerated you may be exactly who a fellow inmate or CO needs to pray for them. If your child is incarcerated, the tenderness of your heart may be a blessing beyond words to someone else who struggles with private sorrows. If you are ill you may have just the word of comfort or appreciation that an exhausted doctor or nurse or billing clerk longs for to shine light into their lives.
O God of God and Light of Light, show me as I walk through my days on this earth, where I can be Your Hands and Feet, shine Your light, channel Your Love and persistently follow You as You help me make the decisions that enable me to serve where You would send me. Teach me what I need to know. Send good people to light my path, pray for me and cheer me on. Pour out the Spirit of God into my life. AMEN
Some people are born for big moments: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mother Teresa, company owners who provide jobs, not-for-profit CEOs who connect people with a heart for service with places where service is needed, Maya Angelou, Madam Curie, Sandra Day O'Connor and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Some of us are born for moments the free world might not even consider important: being a light in darkness, being attentive to people are often overlooked, giving time to someone who needs to be deeply seen and heard, raising a child, doing an honorable and able job of work, being financially responsible, delivering a meal to someone experiencing a difficult time, tutoring a child, teaching an under-employed person job-skills.
If you've never read the story of Esther in the Bible, I recommend it. And the 14th verse in the 4th Chapter of Esther that includes verse 14 which has been restated in this way: Perhaps this is the moment for which you were created. Esther risked her very life in a heroic effort to save her people, so hers was a big moment.
So your moment may be huge, terrifying and leading to important changes for a world desperately in need of inspired leaders and musicians and poets and able women (& men) doing work that is readily identified as "important".
Or your moments may be modest as you live Christ into the lives around you. If you are incarcerated you may be exactly who a fellow inmate or CO needs to pray for them. If your child is incarcerated, the tenderness of your heart may be a blessing beyond words to someone else who struggles with private sorrows. If you are ill you may have just the word of comfort or appreciation that an exhausted doctor or nurse or billing clerk longs for to shine light into their lives.
O God of God and Light of Light, show me as I walk through my days on this earth, where I can be Your Hands and Feet, shine Your light, channel Your Love and persistently follow You as You help me make the decisions that enable me to serve where You would send me. Teach me what I need to know. Send good people to light my path, pray for me and cheer me on. Pour out the Spirit of God into my life. AMEN
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