For such a time as this...

The past week or so I have been very convicted about my concern and care for others, or should I say lack thereof. I get so wrapped up in ME and MY family and MY schedule and MY excitements and MY issues that I am blind to those around me. There are people suffering around me and I seldom take the time to notice or care, much less attempt to do anything about it.
When I truly examine myself and my actions, my thoughts, my feelings...it is simply tragic and embarrassing at the amount of time I spend worried about ME and MINE!
Or when I am not worried about ME..I am a worried about others but in a negative way. They don't measure up to what I think they should be. Soooo...I tell them about ME. How I do things and how great I am. Now maybe I don't say it in those words, but after some soul - searching I am pretty sure that's how others take it.
Or maybe when I do take the time to try to listen to someone, I tell them all the things they did wrong to get to and maybe deserve where they are.
I carry on with my daily life...focused on seemingly important things. But those things become so minor when I take a step back and realize...there are people in my path everyday begging for a kind word, wishing I would give them hope and reason to keep going, anticipating that today is the day I will pay them attention. And what do I do? Nothing. And I am not saying I am anything special that people are begging for my attention because I am some sort of rockstar. But when I look around me, I realize there are men, women, boys, and girls begging anyone to give them a kind word, hoping for someone to give them a reason to keep going, and needing attention.

So God intervenes once again, getting my attention and pulling me ever so painfully back to him...I have a student who needs me in a major way, a sister in Boston who desperately needs hope in a city that is struggling to pick up and keep going, and a sister who attends a college where a crazy person was stabbing people who needs me to remind her that I love her and I'm praying for her. God got my attention..I hear it loud and clear.

In God's grand scheme, Esther was chosen as queen so that she could save the Jews. She was courageous and faithful and fulfilled her duty. Had Esther been worried about herself, she knew the destroying of the Jews was inevitable. But maybe, just maybe, she was "come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14.

 

Now, I am no queen and nowhere near as courageous as Esther but what if there are people in my life and in my daily path that God has put there "for such a time as this"? What if I would cease to focus on myself and begin to focus on those around me...I come in direct contact with 100 teenagers EVERY DAY! I work with a school full of other adults. I attend church at least 3 times a week with my closest friends. And the daily and weekly instances in which I interact with others in endless.  What if God has a plan for me like he did for Esther? What if there is a need that God is expecting me to fulfill and I am too focused on myself to notice.
Proverbs 21:13 says "whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but not be heard". Lord, forgive me when I have failed to listen to the cry of those around me and help me to be faithful to follow You!

Everyday they pass me by,
I can see it in their eyes.
Empty people filled with care,
Headed who knows where?

On they go through private pain,
Living fear to fear.
Laughter hides their silent cries,
Only Jesus hears.

People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize, people need the Lord?