Esther 4:14 (ESV)

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?”

To say, “I am in this time and place for a special purpose,” sounds arrogant. We live in a strange time when children have been told that they are special and unique. They have been told that they can become anything they want to become. Yet once they are adults they are never to voice that idea aloud lest someone think them arrogant and self-centered. Perhaps the real problem is that we have come to believe that being in a special place and time for a special purpose somehow makes us special.

It is interesting that the verse above has a balancing idea to it. On the one hand Mordecai tells Esther that perhaps she is in a special time and place for a special purpose. On the other hand, he reminds her that God will accomplish his purpose with or without her. In other words, God had uniquely placed and prepared her for his purposes, but she is not indispensable. Too often we confuse those ideas. No one is indispensable to the purpose of God, yet every believer has a unique part to play in his plans and purposes.

What if Mordecai had not been there to instruct Esther? What if there had been no servant to carry messages back and forth? What if Esther had not been chosen as queen? Each of those individuals were placed in a unique place for a unique purpose. Yet none of them were indispensable. Not even Esther. “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.”

This is true in the church. Each person is called, gifted, and placed by the sovereign power of God. Too often we only see the obvious ones. Too often the only gifts we value are preaching, teaching, and music. Too often we neglect to see the crucial part others play in the Kingdom work of God. Yet Paul warned about this very thing in 1 Corinthians 12:14-20.

[14] For the body does not consist of one member but of many. [15] If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. [16] And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. [17] If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? [18] But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. [19] If all were a single member, where would the body be? [20] As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

Each of us are special, but none of us are indispensable to the purpose of God. What a challenging and freeing concept all in one. There is no fear that if I mess up, God’s eternal work is somehow hindered. On the other hand, there is an amazing challenge to play a unique part in the eternal purpose of God. There is something in me that says, “I don’t want to miss out! Count me in.” What is God calling you to do? You don’t have to be one of the “beautiful people” to be part of God’s plans and purposes. You only have to be available. We all need to embrace Esther’s response in Esther 4:16 (ESV)

“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

Are you willing to put your life on the line for the purposes of God no matter how things turn out? After all, it’s not about us. It’s about Him.