For Such a Time as This

Last Saturday night I got the opportunity to attend the wedding of a former player of mine from my first team at Nora Springs. It was a rewarding evening. First of all, any opportunity to attend an event at The Surf in Clear Lake is a good one. Secondly, many good friends were in attendance. Most of all, though, I got to see my boys.

Every group I've coached has it's own distinct personality and place in my memory; this group in particular is a special collection. All six of the top upperclassmen from that team were in attendance, and I found myself in conversations with them, now as old as I was when I first started coaching them. One by one I heard their success stories, their plans, their laughter, and their memories from a basketball season nine years ago in an orange and black gym in a little town in northern Iowa. Others from their graduating class, my first group of seniors at Nora Springs, were in attendance as well. Last Saturday was an evening full of seeing young adults whose youths I got to be a part of. I had much to smile about.

I don't know what specific impact I made in those guys' lives. I hope it was significant, but I also know better. I believe each one of them would be just as successful today whether they had learned rebounding and pack-line defense and good shot selection from me or not. But the fact remains that they did learn those things from me, and I did spend time with them, because I said yes to coming to Nora Springs. I came here and went to work and did the best I could; and in the process, I got to be a part of the lives of some really good people.

I thought about this as I sat in adult Sunday School the next morning, discussing "following God's will for our lives." I used to put so much pressure on myself to figure out exactly what God needed me to do and where He needed me to go in the world, as if were I to neglect whatever the task may be, all of God's plans would be thwarted. Of course, it was all hogwash. Despite the burden that I felt, God would accomplish his goals whether I decided to obey or not. He was just asking me to come along for the ride.

I really liked what David Platt, the author of the book we've been studying had to say about this: "God's ultimate concern isn't to get you or me from point A to point B in the quickest, easiest, smoothest, clearest route possible. Rather, His ultimate concern is that you and I would know Him more deeply as we trust Him more completely."

In the Old Testament book of Esther, Esther has been made queen in a time of persecution of the Jews. Her uncle, Mordecai, gives her a somewhat famous line about her position, telling her that she has been placed in this position by God "for such a time as this." When that passage is mentioned, however, I think the most significant piece is left out. Here is Esther 4:12, in its entirety: "For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Essentially, whether she has been called to such a time as this or not, God's will shall be done. The Jews will be delivered. This is her chance, therefore, not to come through for God, but to share in what God is doing. The design of the Great Designer will not be thwarted; Esther, as well as us, can either join in and gain joy or watch passively from the sidelines. God doesn't need us; he wants us.

Those boys didn't need me nine years ago. My current players and students don't need me now. Your co-workers, your neighbors, and everyone else in your circle of influence probably would make it without you too. And so will God. But you have an opportunity. You can join in the joy and be what you have the opportunity to be in such a time as this. You can do what you do, where you are, with passion, joy, sacrifice, and gratitude. Then someday, about nine years down the road, you'll smile a lot about what you were allowed to do.