I've been thinking a lot about two really key women. One was important to a nation, and they still celebrate her. The other was important to only a few but is also still revered. One was a Queen and one just the daughter of a watchmaker. The first woman lived thousands of years ago and the second just a few decades back. The thing with both of them was that they believed that no matter God's will for the world at large, His will for them was for them to step up and do the right thing regardless of the personal cost.
No matter your religious or irreligious background, I bet you've heard of Queen Esther who went three times before the king and to plead for the lives of the Jews. Without breaking down the story too much, let's just say that she used every gift God gave her to convince King Xerxes to spare the lives of all the Jews, the very people HE was planning to kill. She was successful, or you may prefer to say that God's plan was successful, in saving the lives of the Jews that day.
Much, much later a Dutch woman named Corrie ten Boom risked her life to save Jews again. This time she couldn't save an entire people group, but she looked at the people brought into her life by God, looked at the opportunity before her and made her choice. What she did was illegal, but was most clearly the moral choice, the Christian choice to make. She and her father and sister hid Jews in their home until they were arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Her sister and father died before being freed, but Corrie lived to go on and share a story of forgiveness with the world.
Ester's most famous words are, "Who knows if I have come into the world for such a time as this," and it's this action of hers that I call your attention to now. Could God have saved the Jews without Esther? I imagine the answer is yes. But what about Ester? What would it have cost Ester if she had sat back and figured, "If the LORD wills for his people to be saved, he will find some way to save them."? What if Esther had missed the opportunity God put before HER? Besides not getting a national holiday, of course, I can only imagine the anguish in her soul always knowing God had called her to something and she passed.
Corrie ten Boom also has a well known quote, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." I've seen this on pretty backgrounds, floating around the internet. Somehow, separated from Corrie's story, it sounds like it's saying, "Be soothed, sit back and let God do His thing, while you rest and don't worry." When I look at the life of Corrie ten Boom I definitely do not see a woman who took not worrying to mean that she should then "stay out of it." Corrie ten Boom took action, drastic action, action that would cause most people to freak out. She clearly did the opposite of freak out and was calm and at peace in her actions in order to save Jews.
It should be pretty clear that both Esther and Corrie ten Boom had a strong faith in God and that the faith of both women compelled them to act. We too are being called to act. We are being called to use every gift God has given us to do our part, but we first have to believe that we have a part. I believe that Queen Esther and Corrie ten Boom show us that we do, all, have a part to play. God has given you that part, don't be too "humble" to say that God has not called you to anything because you are "nothing." Neither Queen Esther nor Corrie ten Boom had the historical perspective to know, at the moment they made their choices, that what they were doing was huge. They just heard the call to action and went. They did their own part. It seems fair to say that throughout all of history God has acted through people. He parted the red sea when Moses stood there with his arms out. He freed the American slaves through the actions the famous and the never known.
Six months ago, even just three months ago, I would have laughed at anyone who said we are at a real crossroads in time. I would have called them overdramatic. I'm changing my tune. We are at crossroads, a crossroads that we have been walking towards for many years. Lots of little choices made by many people have gotten us here, but there are still choices to be made. Have you considered throwing up your hands and not choosing? Have you considered staying home and keeping quiet? I believe that that is the choice of inaction- the choice NOT made by Esther or Corrie ten Boom. I believe that is NOT what "do not worry" looks like. "Do not worry" means that believing whatever opportunity to act is in front of you is a God given opportunity and he will see you through that opportunity, regardless of the personal cost. "Do not worry" means risking looking like a fool with your hands out over the Red Sea, but doing it anyway because you believe the opportunity to act can, and will, be used by God for Good.
When you are thinking that God can do his will without you, you're right. But have you taken time to consider what will happen to you if you pass on the opportunity to act that God has put in front of you?
