For such a time as this
For such a time as this
We do not get to choose the times we live in. That counts for good and for bad. A century ago, I’d have died giving birth. Before antibiotics, I’d have buried a son. Instead I’ve lived a life free of war or famine.
I am grateful but comfort can lull us into passivity. That cosy blanket can muffle us. Instead of advancing, we bunker down, whilst before our eyes, territory is taken.
Just two weeks ago, I stood by Big Ben with a group praying for God’s intervention in the UK - a prayer meeting put in the diary long before we knew that it would be a pivotal week with a change of Prime Minister and of monarch. Times have changed, our world is precarious and our country is divided and fearful of what the future holds. There was a sense that the bells are ringing, calling God’s people to wake up.
Long ago, a young Jewish girl was ripped from her family and forced into what first looked like a beauty pageant but was really a way into a kind of sexual slavery. Her name was Esther. But as God so wonderfully does, he turned what was meant for evil to good and she became a queen who rescued her people. It involved risking her life. She was presented with a choice, If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14
For such a time as this. Those words are for each of us – will we break our silence? What might that mean?
We have to start by breaking the silence with God. Ask him. God will have a unique part for you to play. Esther had to risk her life. We probably won’t but might have to clamber out of that cosy blanket.
I had an inspiring chat this week with John Kirkby who set up Christians against Poverty shown in this link. John is now onto the next thing - having discovered that 8 out of 10 Christians feel crippled about sharing their faith, he set up the Is 61 movement, to help us see it’s not so hard to break the silence. At such a time as this, with the Queen’s life and the stark reminder of mortality still in our minds, many people want to know about the Jesus she followed.
One key John shares is that hospitality breaks the silence. I believe that call to hospitality is for such a time as this when we are more fragmented and isolated than ever before from each other, from our climate and from our Maker. That’s why I loved reading “A Place at the Table”, poignantly co-written by Jo Swinney with her late mother, Miranda Harris; it is like being invited to a meal table where you make deep connections.
How might God want you to break the silence? As I look at escalating threats in Ukraine, climate change, the looming fuel crisis, the loss of faith in younger generations, I remember what Tolkien wrote,
“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
For such a time as this…
