Why Are You Where You Are?

What are you suppose to do, based on where you are?

Where are you right now? What’s your title? Why are you still alive? Why are you going through what you’re going through? Why did you have to hurt? Why did God allow someone you love to die, and now you’re the one left here? Why did that door open? Why did that one close?

The questions could just keep coming, right? We may not understand all the answers on this side of heaven, but I do think Scripture teaches us to stop occasionally and ask:

Why has God allowed me to be where I am, and what am I supposed to do while I’m here?

A GREAT LESSON FROM ESTHER

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Esther. She’s a Jewish woman who has become queen of Persia, but King Xerxes does not know she is Jewish. Haman, one of the king’s highest officials, hates Mordecai—Esther’s cousin and adoptive father—because Mordecai refuses to bow to him. Haman’s hatred becomes so great that he persuades the king to issue a decree allowing all the Jewish people throughout the Persian Empire to be killed.

Mordecai asks Esther to approach the king and plead for her people, but Esther has a serious problem: you didn’t just walk into the Persian king’s presence whenever you felt like it. Approaching him without being summoned could get you killed unless he extended his golden scepter. Esther essentially tells Mordecai, “I could die doing this.” Mordecai answers by telling her, in effect, Esther, don’t fool yourself into believing the palace protects you from what is happening outside the palace.

MAYBE YOU ARE HERE FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

Then comes this famous passage: “Then Mordecai sent back word to Esther: ‘Just because you live in the king’s palace, don’t think that out of all the Jewish people you alone will escape. If you keep quiet at this time, someone else will help and save the Jewish people, but you and your father’s family will all die. And who knows, you may have been chosen queen for just such a time as this.’” (Esther 4:13–14 NCV)

That last sentence is pretty powerful. In the Hebrew, the idea is essentially, “Who knows whether you have reached royalty for a time such as this?”

DOES GOD HAVE YOU HERE FOR A REASON

Notice Mordecai doesn’t claim to know every detail of God’s hidden plan. He doesn’t say with absolute certainty, “God made you queen specifically for this moment.” He says, “Who knows?” In other words, Esther, look around. Consider where you are. Consider what has happened. Maybe your position isn’t an accident.

God gave Esther privilege, but her privilege created responsibility. Even in your failure, God has plan - it’s true. Our sin doesn’t interrupt His purpose and plan.

SO, WHERE ARE YOU

That makes me wonder about us. Maybe you’re in a wonderful season. Maybe you have money, influence, experience, connections, or an opportunity to speak when somebody else cannot.

Maybe you’re sitting in a room you never expected to be in. Maybe you’re the person who knows the person. Maybe God has blessed you, but have you ever considered that some blessings aren’t merely rewards to enjoy?

Some blessings are assignments.

Or maybe you’re not in the palace at all. Maybe you’re in the pit. You’re grieving. You’re sick. You’ve failed. You’ve been betrayed. You lost somebody. Something happened to you that you would never have chosen.

I’m not saying every painful thing happened because God wanted to teach you some neat little lesson. We live in a broken world, and some things simply hurt. But I do believe God can take what we would never choose and use it in ways we could never have imagined.

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH WHERE YOU ARE?

So maybe the question is not only, “Why did this happen to me?” Maybe another question is, “God, what can You do through me now that I’m here?”

We don’t just float through life as though our circumstances have nothing to do with the purposes of God. God works through ordinary people, ordinary decisions, suffering, success, relationships, failures, opportunities, interruptions, and even things we wish had never happened.

Sometimes we spend so much time asking God to change where we are that we never ask Him what He wants to do through us while we’re there.

GOD USES YOU, BUT DOESN’T NEED YOU

And don’t miss what Mordecai tells Esther. He doesn’t say, “Esther, if you don’t do this, God’s plan is going to fail.” He says that if she remains silent, “someone else will help and save the Jewish people.” That is an enormous theological truth.

God gives us opportunities to participate in what He is doing, but God is not helpless without us. His sovereignty keeps us humble, while His calling should keep us moving.

In other words, you matter, but you’re not God. Everything doesn’t depend upon you. But don’t use that as an excuse to do nothing either. Esther had an opportunity nobody else had. She was in the palace. She had access to the king. She could speak. Her position gave her an assignment.

DON’T KEEP READING, STOP AND ANSWER THE QUESTION

You have to stop long enough to evaluate this in your own life. For me, I increasingly feel that God wants me to share what He has allowed me to experience—my past sin, my successes, my failures, what I’ve learned about marriage and family, the things I wish I had done differently, and even the things happening right now. Wendy’s tumor. My leukemia. My soon-to-be stupid knee replacement. Even our niece moving in with us for a year.

I believe there’s a reason I’m still alive, and I want to use what God has allowed in my life to honor Him and love other people. I’m not taking it to the grave with me.

I don’t want to be just one old leaf hanging on the tree waiting for the wind to blow me off. If God still has me here, then I want to ask, “What am I supposed to do while I’m here?”

SO, WHAT ABOUT YOU - WHAT WILL YOU DO

What about you? What are you doing with your time? Your money? Your pain? Your experience? Your relationships? Your influence? Your mistakes? Someone may desperately need something God taught you the hard way.

You may be able to encourage someone because you’ve been discouraged. You may be able to walk beside someone grieving because you’ve grieved. You may be able to warn someone because you made the mistake first. You may be able to give because God gave you resources. You may be able to speak because God gave you influence.

Your location and circumstances may be connected to your assignment.

WHO CAN YOU BLESS

So where are you today? Instead of only asking, “God, why am I here?” maybe ask one more question: “God, what do You want me to do while I’m here?” Who can you bless because of where you are right now? What has God put directly in front of you? What experience, resource, pain, relationship, opportunity, or responsibility are you supposed to use for His glory and someone else’s good?

Good or bad, palace or pit, success or suffering—who knows? Maybe you are where you are for just such a time as this.

LORD, give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Help us recognize what You have placed in front of us and give us the courage to use our lives to honor You and love others as ourselves. IJNIP amen ♥️

(A day out shopping with my brain-tumor wifey)