Queen Esther -- painting by Edwin Long (1878)

If we are obedient to God, if we eagerly desire to become the men and women He has called us to be, and if we are chasing after His will and not our own, we discover our giftings and impact lives. You see, each and every person is uniquely gifted by God and should, through His strength, use their talents to His glory and the benefit of others: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 5:10) Here I want to stop my quote and point out the words various forms. It is so important that we realize that there is not just one way to honor God – not just one way to change the world. I thnk that, in many cases, we have really come to underestimate God’s amazing power. We have fallen into believing that bigger is better – if you can’t do it big, why do it at all? If you aren’t Joyce Meyer or T. D. Jakes and are just plain old you, how could you make any difference? But what not everyone understands is even those people are just one person. If everyone would become “the one,” think how it would radically impact the whole world!

I am going to use some examples: Esther from the Bible and Neo from Matrix. They were each “the one”; they were put in the right place at the right time: “And who knows but that you have come to…postition at such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14) Now, each of them had a choice: accept or say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” They could have made the choice to walk away, BUT, as Mordecai told Esther, “For if you remian silent at this time…deliverance…will arise from another place…” (Esther 4:14) Esther could have refused the task set before her, and God would have made another way to save His people. In fact, He could have just zapped the “bad guys” with a lighting bolt or done something else equally miraculous. So why didn’t He? As I said, God has given each of us a destiny and a purpose, and He wants us to follow His call no matter how impossible our circumstances may look to our own eyes.

Let’s take a look at Neo now. He was really concerned that he wasn’t “the one.” Because if everyone else was wrong and he wasn’t truly “the one,” then there was a big problem, right? However, as the Oracle told him, it wasn’t about whether he was actually “the one” or not; it was about him believing that he was the one – about him believing that he could be change and make a difference. We need to come back to a place where we focus not on the seeming impossibility of something, but on how just how big God is, because with Him, nothing is impossible and He will always equip us to do what He has called us to do.

I want to finish by quoting verse eleven of 1 Peter 5: “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” The time is now – the time for each of us to be the one to step out, to be the one who does what is right, to be the one who obeys.