Perhaps you have been perfectly positioned for such a time as this. Perhaps you have walked through something less than ideal just to end up equipped to be where you are for such a time as this. This was true for Queen Esther in the Bible.
Esther, one of God’s chosen people, a Jew, had lost her parents and was being raised by her cousin Mordecai. She quickly found herself propelled into a completely new season of life by becoming Queen and eventually being positioned perfectly to boldly stand up for her people to her husband the King, and in turn saving an entire nation from execution. In encouraging Esther to step into her calling, Mordecai says to her in Esther 4:14,
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Clearly, I shared the spoiler alert, but Esther didn’t remain silent, she walked through the door of opportunity that was in front of her and saved her people.
Such a time as this. This concept hit me with everything I have been through coming back around full circle this week. I have been through such a traumatic experience of being hit in a head on car collision and having to rehabilitate my right arm back to sufficient use, that my world was seemingly turned upside down, requiring me to persevere through so much fear, pain, and uncertainty to find a new normal. I’ve felt the hand of God, as I’ve shared, completely carrying me through each step of the process and reminding me that I have been called according to His purpose, to find my purpose and meaning through such trauma. This week, that purpose has been given to me, a purpose, an opportunity, given for such a time as this.
Last week, on Monday, I began the week crying out to God. Our financial situation with me not working has brought stress and many burdens as our savings continue to dwindle and medical bills keep coming in, and not to mention y’all, kids are expensive! I talked to God and really just asked for Him to open up doors of provision. I reminded myself that I knew I did the right thing in not going back to the classroom to teach when the school year began in August, and that God was in that decision just as He would be in the ones moving forward. He hadn’t left us then, and He wouldn’t leave us now.
Fast forward to Friday, I got a call after applying for an open position for the school district I’m on leave with, from a school just half a mile from my house, that there was an open position for me, teaching 3rd grade as I had taught before. While the opportunity sounds ideal being just down the road and in a familiar grade, for the main reason being that Kirie, our first grader, is at a different school, it is not what I would have chosen. I had said when I applied that I would only go back to teaching if the “right” door opened for me. That door being the one to the school that Kirie attends, the school I had worked at before the car collision, the one that I began my teaching career at, the school where I know and loved working for the principal, and the school that has many colleagues that have become close friends, the school I chose. But how many times have I read, recited, and believed,
“A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
I mean clearly I’ve learned through all of this and mastered that giving up control thing. Ha.
While I said I wasn’t going to do anything I hadn’t planned out in my own mind to do, I really felt like I wasn’t in the position having just asked God to open doors, to tell him to close THAT one. After much praying and talking over the weekend, I went to the school to meet with the principal that had called, to get a feel for this new opportunity. I instantly connected with her and got a good feel about this sweet, little school. As I walked into the classroom filled with kids that were victims of Hurricane Michael, relocated to the school, giving me the opportunity to teach them, this is when things came back around and hit me full circle. I felt like I walked into that class and to those students for such a time as this. In hearing of the anxiety that some of them suffer with post storm, in seeing one in tears, and in just looking in to their sweet faces, I knew that I had been perfectly positioned and equipped to teach them. I could certainly understand their pain, trauma, and uncertainty and relate in using what I have gone through for a purpose. I knew that God had done just as I had asked and opened up the door, the “right” door, that I was called to walk through. I could argue that I don’t want to take Kirie, our first grader, out of a school that’s she’s thriving. I could say that given everything I’ve gone through that I need familiar, comfortable, and what I am used to. I could stay right where I am and be silent, but perhaps, I have been called for such a time as this.
Kirie and I will start at Bay Elementary on Monday. I know that God is in the details, that He has gone before and behind me to open this door of opportunity for me, and in faith and obedience, I am walking through. I am not certain that I am completely ready, but I know that His grace is sufficient for me and that His strength is made perfect in my weakness. My God through His grace has strengthened and equipped me to do what He has called me to do. Perhaps you have an opportunity, an open door, that God is calling you to for such a time as this. Walk through it. Remain steadfast in His grace and love to be propelled into your calling. Remember, the doors God opens, no one can shut. Jesus said so Himself in Revelation 3:8,
I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
Don’t deny God from being God and let Him lead you into that which you are called.
Love you and this Jana!!