“If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place but you and your relatives will die. Who know if perhaps you were made queen for just a time such as this? ”
Esther 4:14
I am one of those people who believe that everything happens for a reason: for a greater purpose or because we are stupid and we don’t always make the right decisions. The second one might not seem like a “valid reason” but it still is one. I will not argue with you: argue with yourself. I had originally written this post as part of a chapter in my second memoir but with the current states of things, I found it more than fitting for it to have its place on this platform because someone needs to be reminded that they're made for such a time as this.
So to come back to my point: everything happens for a reason and sometimes it doesn’t always make sense until you get all the way to the other side of what you are going through and then it finally hits you and you’re like “OH! THAT is what all of this was about” God is the best chess player: He got moves for eternity and one of the reasons why is because He created the world. He created every single one of them and knows the storyline of our lives even before we were created. He knows every twist and turn and every plot-twist we have ever experienced in life and will ever experience in life has been designed by Him. I like the story of Esther because in the times where I struggle the most with impostor syndrome and some of the hardship that I go through in life, it reminds me that God orchestrated for me to be in those places in life but also physically for a purpose. He put me in those places because there is something in me that is only specific to me, that can turn things around. I am not saying that I am the best but I am saying that there is something about the way He made me, something about my idiosyncrasies, something about the way my DNA is wired that led God to position me where I am. And sometimes it isn’t even about me or what God wants to do for me. Sometimes it is about what God wants to do around me and within people that He can only do until I am on board.
The more I dwell in God’s word, the more I realize that although there is a part of our story that is about us, the majority of it is about the people surrounding us. I am learning to slowly understand and come to terms with the fact that my story doesn’t belong to me. It is a platform that God wants to use to change someone’s life. I am learning that I can’t just do whatever I want with my life. I just can’t give up on myself and my breakthrough because someone else’s breakthrough might depend on mine. I can’t just afford to live any kind of way because there are lives attached to the outcome of mine whether I want it of not. Made for such a time as this… David could have asked God why out of all of the days that he picked to visit his brothers it would be that day that Goliath would be there or why he was the one keeping the sheep why his other brothers were getting exposure. But instead, David did not flinch; and when Saul reminded him that he had no experience as a soldier, so knowledge/ training when it came to war, he responded with elements of the divine curriculum that he went through. He said: “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats. When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animals turn on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The Lord who rescued me from the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17: 34-37)
As a class of 2020 graduate, I, like most students here in the US and around the world, didn't get to walk the stage and collect my diploma nor did I get to have a graduation party. However, I did tuned into the Dear Class of 2020 YouTube Originals and got my share of cheering and congratulations but also, my share of crying because every address reminded me of how long and hard the walk to that degree was for me. From the way it started all the way to the end. Although a lot of useful advice were given, addresses were powerful and moving, one of the things that I wrote down and took with me and that I believe is so fitting for this post is "Why not and why not me?" by Russell Westbrook.
As the class of 2020, we have been dubbed as the class of Resilience because of all we have been able to achieve in the midst of a pandemic but also with regards to the current situation in the US. We are dubbed as the generation that can and most likely will change the world because we have been through SO MUCH and still we rose. Still we rise. And we keep walking towards the things we want, ready to own them; towards the territories we have laid our eyes on, ready to conquer them. As a black woman a who just graduated AND just turned 29, two major events within the same year, at a short time interval, I cannot help but think of it as another way for God to tell me that it is time, that I am ready to level up no matter how unprepared or incapable I feel, no matter how messy and chaotic I think the world is. God is saying "it is time, you are ready and through the tears, the fire and the high water tides, the sleepless night, the highs and the lows, the valleys and the mountains, the heartbreaks and the setbacks, you were made and shaped for such a time as this". And if this is true for me friend, it certainly is for you.
God makes no mistake. God wastes nothing. Everything we go through has a purpose in God’s curriculum even when we see it as a waste. Every detail is important to God that is why we need to pay attention and seek God’s direction in order to do what He has called us to do instead of what we want to do because God’s way is the best way. God gives his hardest battles to the best soldier. There is something about your life, your walk, your story that will serve you or someone one day so do not give up. Do not back down and remember no matter what you go through that you have been formed, made in God’s image, anointed for such a time as this; to show the word that this mountain can be moved and it will.
Congratulations to the class of 2020 and especially to all the black young kings and queens who were ever told they would never make it, who had to fight their way through to that degree or who simply followed the path of excellence that was traced before them.
Chiiiile... WE MADE IT and WE'RE READY TO LEAD THE WAY INTO CHANGE.
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