Standing at the crossroads of 'maybe'
Running a race against a young refugee offered Keith Jackson food for thought about mission.
Last year my wife Barbie and I returned to the UK during lockdown and had to quarantine in a hotel for eleven nights.
The Afghanistan refugee crisis developed at the same time, and we watched these displaced people arrive from our hotel window.
Each day we were allowed 15 minutes of exercise under the supervision of a security guard, and I took to jogging up and down the middle of the car park.
Then it happened.
I was just finishing up my session when a young woman and her kid brother came out for their bit of fresh air. They had arrived the day before from Afghanistan.
The little boy, about ten, grinned at me and I grinned back and beckoned him to run with me.
A mistake. He thought we were racing.
I waited for the guard to call me back. He didn’t.
After a few minutes I gasped to the guard on my next pass, “Anytime you want to stop this, please do!”
He replied, “The boy needs it!”
He left us running up and down for another 15 minutes.
There, surrounded by refugees and quarantined travelers, this middle-aged, sweaty guy and this boy who spoke no English forged a friendship.
What was going on here?
This child was getting a justice message in the middle of the upheaval to his young life.
He was welcomed. He was given permission to laugh. He was reassured that there was hope. It was all sealed at the end with the universal sign of affirmation – a high five.
Esther
The book of Esther is narrative history – a post-exile story about the Jews who stayed behind when most had returned to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity.
God is never mentioned in the book, but his interventions can be seen.
It’s a bit like the ‘West Wing’, meets ’24’, meets ‘Line of Duty’.
It’s full of reversals, twists and turns, as Mordecai and then Esther intervene, yet at each step there’s personal risk involved.
When Mordecai hears of the edict to exterminate the Jews, he sends word to Esther. Initially she refuses to help (a point often overlooked – Esther 4: 11-13).
He then utters these well-known words: “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
Most people I hear who quote this verse strut around like peacocks as though they’re someone special.
We have attached the phrase to some kind of spiritual blessing.
That is a misquote.
Mordecai says, ‘Who knows?’, or ‘Perhaps’, or ‘Maybe’.
Most of us, as we face the future, will be standing at the crossroads of ‘maybe’.
Being called ‘for such a time as this’ is not some blessing from heaven but the option to be the instrument of God where we are, in our school, college, workplace, street and town.
It is not a blessing to receive but a strategic action to take.
Break with convention
Esther had to do things she didn’t want to do.
It meant discomfort. It meant personal cost. It meant breaking with conventions.
In a world where societal norms are being redefined by activists, Esther’s dilemma can speak to all of us.
Esther initially feels she cannot do what needs to be done. To go before the king without invitation means exile at best, or death.
Connections are key
The key to being strategically placed in a situation by God is connection.
Mordecai is connected to Esther, who in turn is connected to the king.
To be connected is human. We need each other. We must cultivate good, healthy connections and friendships with people to be able to speak life into their lives.
These connections may be for a lifetime, or a few minutes, but they can be ‘for such a time as this’ encounters.
Mission focused
When God has said nothing new, we must remain focused on the mission.
Esther was bound to the people and they to her by their common mission (Esther 4: 15-16).
She knows this could end badly for her and says, “If I die, I die” What?!
To be here ‘for such a time as this’ means we will need to be prepared to sacrifice for the sake of others.
Esther calls all the people to pray and fast with her for three days (4: 16).
If God is saying something to you about the social or systemic injustice in the world, make sure you bathe your next move in prayer. Make sure you have others praying with you.
‘For such a time as this’ situations need to increase our prayer lives, not our anxieties.
Use your knowledge
The mission of Esther was to rescue her people but she used the organisational culture of her day (Esther 5: 4; 7: 1).
Esther does not come into the situation in a super-spiritual way. She uses what she knows and what the king knows: the prevailing culture and practices of the day.
Run alongside
Did I feel like this was a ‘for such a time as this’ moment when I ran with that Afghan boy? No, I was exhausted, uncomfortable and sweaty.
That boy and I broke conventions – no social distancing, no age-discrimination and no common language.
Sometimes to show someone their worth, their inherent need for justice, you have to run alongside them.
Keith and Barbie Jackson are an Elim Missionaries in South Africa.
This article first appeared in the August 2022 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details please click here.
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