Perish
"If I perish, I perish." Esther: a human, feeble soul spoke those words to Mordechai. She was about to exercise an independence--the very same independence that had banished the late queen Vashti. The king looked down on independent women, clearly. Yet Esther was about to enter the king's presence without his consent--an act that would quickly bring banishment. It had to be done; her people were about to be annihilated, and she had to act on their behalf despite the seemingly inevitable death sentence.
"If I perish, I perish." Words for a queen--words for someone anointed and favored of God, right?
Esther: a human, feeble soul. Me: a human, feeble soul.
Perhaps there isn't a great difference. We have the Spirit of God within us, if we have chosen to follow Him, so what is the difference? What if I am called to utter those words? What if I am called to live those words--every day, for the kingdom?
If we are honest with ourselves, we may find that we all desire to have a cause like Esther's; in every human soul, there is a longing to worship something worthy of our entire life. In Christ, we do. We have the call to say, "If I perish, I perish"--for the cause of Christ! And we can say, "indeed, [we] count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus [our] Lord" (Philippians 3:8).
Everything: our possessions, our status, our livelihood...our dreams. Of course, the thought is daunting, and I felt weak and faint as I was pondering all the implications, but maybe that's how we are meant to live. Maybe we are meant to live this life saying, "If I perish, I perish."
Esther, a queen: bold, courageous, confident, favored...human, feeble, needy, weak. We aren't so very different, are we? We have everything in Christ, and we are called to give everything for His sake. It's easy to side-step this call to boldness. Being comfortable comes naturally in the western culture, and we have to seek out the opportunity to be uncomfortable--that's where it's scary: what if we forget to pick up this calling we've been commissioned as followers of Christ? What if we choose to overlook the call of sacrifice for the pull of comfort...
"If I perish, I perish." Words for a queen--words for someone anointed and favored of God, right?
Esther: a human, feeble soul. Me: a human, feeble soul.
Perhaps there isn't a great difference. We have the Spirit of God within us, if we have chosen to follow Him, so what is the difference? What if I am called to utter those words? What if I am called to live those words--every day, for the kingdom?
If we are honest with ourselves, we may find that we all desire to have a cause like Esther's; in every human soul, there is a longing to worship something worthy of our entire life. In Christ, we do. We have the call to say, "If I perish, I perish"--for the cause of Christ! And we can say, "indeed, [we] count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus [our] Lord" (Philippians 3:8).
Everything: our possessions, our status, our livelihood...our dreams. Of course, the thought is daunting, and I felt weak and faint as I was pondering all the implications, but maybe that's how we are meant to live. Maybe we are meant to live this life saying, "If I perish, I perish."
Esther, a queen: bold, courageous, confident, favored...human, feeble, needy, weak. We aren't so very different, are we? We have everything in Christ, and we are called to give everything for His sake. It's easy to side-step this call to boldness. Being comfortable comes naturally in the western culture, and we have to seek out the opportunity to be uncomfortable--that's where it's scary: what if we forget to pick up this calling we've been commissioned as followers of Christ? What if we choose to overlook the call of sacrifice for the pull of comfort...
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