Contrary to what we've always been told, Esther was not the heroine of her own story, she wasn't even the main character.
Yeah, she had a book named after her and her husband, the king would do just about anything she asked of him which led to her saving an entire people however, I think she would agree with me when I say this but it wasn't her we should all be focusing on-
it's grace.
No, there's no typo because I don't mean Grace the person but actual God-given, we-all-need-some-of-that-good-stuff, unrelenting, situation-changing grace!
Take grace away from this story and you're left with a girl living an ordinary (actually you're probably better off saying boring) life.
She wouldn't have been chosen to become queen.
She would not have found favor with the king.
She wouldn't have found the courage to go unsolicited before the high court and ask for help.
She would have lost her plea to save her people and maybe would have actually gotten a few people killed in the process.
Without grace there would be no 17th book in the Bible named Esther because as great and inspiring as she was she did none of those acts on her own.
So, what am I trying to get at here? I'm saying that we can be great in our own right if we realize that we and our capabilities are not the heroins or heroes of our story - grace is.
You don't need to have it all before you get it all. You don't need to measure up to any standard to be considered good enough because His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
We often go into or leave situations believing that we won't measure up or didn't do enough and we let that affect us in such a negative way. The truth is there will always be someone who you think is smarter, faster, bigger, stronger, and/or better than you but don't let that hinder the unique ray of light God wants to use in you.
Just like an artist turns broken shards of glass into beautiful mosaics, how a runner uses the hardest and probably ugliest of terrains to train on, how a potter never discards a piece of clay just because of its color and shape, and how God used the most average of girls to become queen and save a nation, so will you be in whatever situation you find yourself in.
Allow God's grace to take you where only your dreams can, and then some.
We all uniquely fall short in a lot of things but when we leave those things to God and then allow Him to mix what we can do with that marvelous, better-than-the-putty-that-fits-into-every-crack-and-magically-fixes-everything grace, we are bound for awesomeness.
So, what's your journey like? Where do you see yourself and trust in Him to take you? Wherever it is I hope it's nothing short of glorious!
