For the past two months the message of Mordecai to Esther has been ringing through my head and pounding on my heart:
'Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all your people suffer. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief will arise from some other place, but you and yours will die.'Sitting in the dirt with four-year-old Jeremiah in Haiti, all that I can think and do is love, because that is now. I am here for such a time as this-to wrap this little guy in a hug.
I am here for such a time as this to provide food. To teach sustenance. To pray. To serve. To love.
This is one reason (of many) that I went to Haiti, and it is one reminder that I took from it, because it is in serving these people that I am reminded of just how blessed I am-but more so the purpose of it. The purpose of my blessings are not so that I can store them up as riches to be admired and drooled upon. For where my treasures are, there too is my heart. I am blessed so that I can give to others. I am redeemed so that I can show others the name of Jesus. I am safe so that I can risk my life for those who aren't. I am in such positions not to abuse them but to reach out to those who the world has beaten and bruised and broken down.
Come on, my soul.
My (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual) life has been given to me so that I can use it to give life to others. Otherwise, I am wasting it, for what good does it do to gain everything I want and need and lose my soul in the process? As much as I may gain, I lose real life. I can store up my possessions for myself and plan out my whole life on Pinterest, hoarding and hoarding and hoarding, constantly wanting more and never being satisfied until everything I own collects dust and gets stored into boxes, given to family members in future generations or sold in garage sales while people go every single day-in Haiti and the United States and Africa and every other country-starving, cold, and tired. I profit nothing at all-not one single thing-if I strive to thrive every way physically but am at the lowest point spiritually. There are a multitude of ways to be the living dead.
As Ann Voscamp writes, '...at the end of our lives, do we want to made of cells or stories'?
Read these statistics borrowed from the blog of Ann:
'If you have any food in your fridge, any clothes in your closet, any small roof, rented or owned, over your head, you are richer than 75% of the rest of the world. We are the Esthers living inside the palace.
If you have anything saved in the bank, any bills in your wallet, any spare change in a jar, you are one of the top 8% wealthiest people in the world. We are the Esther’s living inside the gate.
If you can read these words right now, you have a gift 3 billion people right now don’t, if your stomach isn’t twisted in hunger pangs, you have a gift that 1 billion people right now don’t, if you know Christ, you have a gift that untold millions right now don’t. We are the ones living inside the gate.'
We are inside the gate to reach the ones outside of it. We are called to rejoice rather than complain. We are called to speak out for truth rather than silently accept injustice. We are created to live like Jesus. We are made to serve Him and love the people He has made in His image. For such a time as this-to every man, woman, and child. We are where we are-you are where you are-for such a time as this. To share joy. To bring life. To be Jesus.
