Perhaps you’ve already managed to come to this conclusion by this time in your life:
Nothing happens by accident. You are where you are, not because of fate or human manipulation or a confluence of circumstances, but because God allowed it to be so–to serve His higher purposes.
There are things that happen to us that aren’t according to God’s will–but He allowed them to happen. But that doesn’t mean He’s responsible for them. Because we are, of course, responsible for every choice we make. We are the sum of our choices.
There is a mind-boggling interplay of several things that brought us to where we are now: our own free will, God’s sovereignty, the law of cause and effect, plus spiritual and natural laws that no one can circumvent nor escape.
It would be fatally naive to think that we can achieve anything we set our minds to. Just five minutes of nasty weather can destroy our most carefully-laid out plans.
It’s also brazen and idiotic to think that the little success we’ve managed to have so far is because we’re such great shakes. All it takes is one fatal heart attack to paralyze us or render us mentally unfit for life. In minutes, our “success” would have gone up in smoke.
Whether or not we realize it, we live a fragile existence. Never have illusions of grandeur–that you’re a “self-made success,” for example. We can’t even manufacture a single cell in our bodies, much less come up with a purely original thought or idea.
Everything we have that’s of any value was created or given to us by God. So there’s no such thing as a “self-made man.” Even a spore or a paramecium had to be created by God. And so were we!
There was this beautiful girl, a commoner, who was catapulted (that seems to be the most appropriate word) to a queen’s throne by a series of unforeseen events. So from a life of obscurity, she suddenly enjoyed a resplendent existence. On the surface, one might be awestruck by this occurrence–what a fantastic, unimaginable stroke of “good luck”! In fact, a different version of this might have happened to you or someone you know. And most of us would probably think, “Wow. I can’t believe this is actually happening! Ang suerte ko naman!”
Well, I don’t know if that’s what this ordinary girl-turned-queen thought. But sometime later, a malevolent thing happened. The queen’s people were in grave danger of being annihilated by a powerful officer who had great influence on the king.
The plot thickens. The king didn’t know that his queen was, in fact, part of the race that he had just approved for annihilation. For political reasons, the queen had kept it a secret that she was a Jew.
The queen’s uncle begged the queen to approach the king and intercede for her fellow Jews. This meant she could be put to death herself. So the queen refused. Of course she refused! It’s normal to look after one’s own interests first, right?
But her uncle said something that gave her pause and changed her mind. He said something like this (my paraphrase): “How do you know that God didn’t make you queen for such a time as this–so that you can save your own people?”
So this queen had an epiphany. She realized that her being made queen, by God, wasn’t just for her convenience, comfort, or personal advancement. He meant it for a much loftier purpose–so that she would, one day, be in a position to save her own people from annihilation. So she wisely asked her people for spiritual back-up. She asked them to fast and pray for her. Then she went to the king, and through a series of brilliant, God-directed political maneuvers, she was used by God to save the Jews.
Are you in a position where you can use your power and influence to save people, to help others have a better quality of life? To avert murder, corruption, or injustice around you?
To be a voice for people who are oppressed, suppressed, repressed? To represent those who are overlooked or marginalized?
Think about it. Were you put where you are for such a time as this?
If you only look after your own interests, you will lose your life. Whenever we do not accomplish the purpose for which God sent us or established us, we waste our lives. We will never experience real joy. We will never enjoy a lasting sense of accomplishment.
If we do not accomplish God’s purpose for our lives, we will feel empty and useless, no matter how successful the world thinks we are. We will start dying in so many ways–way before we die physically.
God put you where you are for such a time as this. You don’t have to be the CEO of a company, or the president of a country, to be of significant use to God.
Right now, in whatever place or position you’re in, He made you for such a time as this.
Use your influence, talents, position and resources for God’s purposes, for the good of others, for a cause infinitely bigger than yourself.
That’s the only way your life will count.
