The Stage is Set
One of my favorite quotes from Shakespeare is featured in As You Like It (Act II, Scene 7). It's common to hear anywhere, now. But when you think about it... there's a lot to dwell upon. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances..." Pondering on this the other day made me made me stop and think about lives unfolding around us. About the lives books. The lives of Biblical characters. The name Hadassah (or, Esther) pops out at me in particular. One of my heroes. Though i've done several posts on Hadassah before, i just want to write this... as a series. Thinking in terms of G-d's play-writing.
Even the king paled in comparison to this godly young woman... she knew leadership was a gift. You and i are leaders for Jesus, and how well we lead depends on the impact on those around us; and that we are going in G-d's direction, not ours, should greatly, greatly influence what we say and how we act, and how we listen. We start with the setting. The Persian Empire, with all 127 provinces. The curtain rises... on hard beginnings. Hadassah, was, the Bible tells us, a beautiful young woman, was going about her daily life; but one day, she wakes up, and is taken away to a new, unknown place. There may or may not have been dreams she dreamed, but i'm almost positive that becoming queen was not one of them. Imagine being snatched away from... your highschool graduation. Your life is "just beginning," you have a new horizon in front of you, and just when you are about to be called onto the stage, someone "takes" you away, and you have the rest of your life suddenly predetermined. Scene/Chapter Two, titled, When Life Gives You No Choice. But Hadassah lived the life she was given.
In light of the above, the question is, when "life" presents itself, how will we choose to respond? Rising each day to praise the G-d who sustains each of us? We all have a story that He has penned, so we must live it for Him. Helen Keller- was blind and deaf. Beethoven was going deaf. Bach went blind; but they all possess one thing in common, and that is they pressed ahead, despite the odds. How we rise to the occasion as graciously as possible.. before Hadassah's story even begins to truly unfold, G-d's good favor was already leaking out upon her.
The point is... G-d knows exactly what He is doing- in both of our lives. May we entrust our souls to Him, and do what is right. My senior pastor says something that always strikes a chord with me: "If you can't control your life... do what Jesus would."
