Right Here, Right Now

It is 2012, for crying out loud!  How did we get here?  What are we doing?  Where are we going?  What challenges, adventures, surprises, victories, losses, and changes are ahead?  And what difference does it make? So go my New Year’s reflections.

To tell you the truth, I gave up on New Year’s resolutions years ago.  I have eaten and slept myself out of so many of them that I figured there had to be a better way.  The quest to find that better way continues annually as the big ball drops and the celestial calendar clicks over to a new fourth digit.

I have discovered something in this quest.  An annual review leaves too much blank space between reviews.  The more frequently I ponder the focus of life, the more focused life becomes.  So, while the whole New Year thing particularly lends itself to reflection, I am trying to figure out how to bring those times of refocus and reflection a little closer together.

There are people who believe, based on some sort of Mayan calendar/galactic alignment/New Age thingy, that something significant will happen in 2012.  Some have even suggested the end of the world on or about December 21. (Anyone remember Y2K?  Or a little book called 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Occur in 1988?) 

I am here to tell you that something significant will occur for each of us in 2012.  It doesn’t take a psychic or a futurist to predict that.  My prediction is based on the reality that drives this blog each week – our lives matter to God.

Something significant will happen because you and I are significant.  The question is not whether anything of consequence will happen to or for us this year.  The question is what we will do with it.

There is a story in the Old Testament about a Jewish girl who became Queen of Persia.  Her name was Hadassah, but she is better known as Esther.  Her cousin, Mordecai, discovered a despicable plot that had been put in place to destroy the Jews.  He went to Esther to ask her to go before King Xerxes and plead for the life of her people.  Esther was hesitant because of the custom which prohibited anyone from coming before the king without an invitation.  Here is Mordecai’s reply:

"Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:13-14)

Those words are the basis of my New Year’s challenge to each of us.  For such a time as this, God has placed us where we are.  Our lives matter so much to Him that He does not want us to miss out on His purpose.  He can do it without our cooperation, but the loss would be ours.  This is not just true every 365 days.  It is true every 24 hours. 

A prayer for each new day – You put me right here, right now.  Show me what to do with that.  Amen.