Unlikely Circumstances
By Susan Klein
“Here am I. Send me.”
I love the movie One Night
With The King, a story about Esther.
One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Mordecai proclaims that Esther
has been placed in her unlikely circumstance of being chosen as wife by the
king “…for such a time as this.” He
knows she now possesses influence to save her people from harm. God is like
that, placing people in unlikely circumstances in order to do something they’d
never have otherwise done.
Scripture is filled with such stories. Joseph is sold into
slavery, so he can eventually end up serving a king and providing for his
people during a famine. Miriam puts baby Moses in a basket. He ends up being
raised in Pharaoh’s household, so he can eventually lead his people out of
Egypt. David, as a boy, is sent to merely take food to the Israelite soldiers
facing the Philistines in battle, but he is used by God to slay the giant
Goliath with his simple slingshot.
Have you ever wanted to be used by God in such a mighty way?
Have you ever thought, “My life is so ordinary, how can God possibly use me for
something so big?”
But maybe He already has? Perhaps He’s used you (like Miriam and
David) in a situation that seemed small and insignificant at the time, but it
started a chain reaction of events that He used for a bigger purpose. We aren’t
always privy to what God does behind the scenes. Maybe the question we really
ought to be asking is, “How can I be used by God in simple ways?”
Recently, my daughter and I were coming out of a restaurant. In
the parking lot, a teenage boy approached us and asked to use our phone. He was
stranded and was trying to get to a relative’s house. We were not in a familiar
area and knew, in a world where bad things happen, that this complete stranger
could have been setting us up.
Long story short, we ended up spending an hour with him, in our
car, driving several miles to another town. He thanked us as we approached his
destination. We replied, “Please don’t thank us. Thank God for putting us in
that place at that time so we could be of help.”
As we made the long drive home, we reflected how God had taken
us out of our comfort zone to do something that we might never have otherwise
done. I wonder how He might be using this unlikely little circumstance?
GOING DEEPER:
1. What unlikely place might God be desiring to use you?
2. Is your heart open and available?
FURTHER READING:
Susan
is married to Mark, and has two adult children. She enjoys teaching Bible
studies, writing, and tutoring with the Literacy Council. She is a member of
the Peace Team at Oakwood and also co-leads a small group.
