A Common Woman: An Uncommon Courage

I am constantly floored by how God chooses to grow and stretch me as I walk with Him through life. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t ask him… “Are you serious?”… “When can I just be over this?”… “Weren’t we done with issue awhile ago?”

As I continue to try and understand what God has for me in this life as an adoptee, adoptive mother, and Christ Follower, I become more and more convinced that I won’t ever figure it out until I’m face to face with Him and he is explaining this craziness to me.

Do you ever wonder, like me, why God chooses what he does to make me “up” my game? Why did it have to be this event, or that person, or another issue? Why does He think this is what I need to become the person He is trying to make me?

God seems to regularly remind me of the story of Esther. She was such an amazing woman in the Bible and she had immense courage!

• The Event: A Jewish woman adopted by her cousin Mordecai and raised to unexpected royalty when King Xerxes chose her as the new queen.
• The Person: Haman hated Mordecai and therefore wanted all of the Jews killed.
• The Issue: Esther had to decide if she would have courage and risk her life by going in front of the king uninvited(cause for death in the day) to share the plot by Haman against her people.

This story romances my faith every time I read it because Esther was an adoptee… a different ethnicity from those in the land she lived… a “common” woman who loved God and wanted to honor Him above all ~ even to the point of death. My favorite line in this story is when Mordecai states;

“Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

That statement has hung with me ever since I read this story because every time I am challenged by this event, that person or another issue, I think to myself ~ “What if God put me here in this place for just such a time as this?

Will I have the courage it takes to risk it all for what is right in God’s eyes?”

What if I am an adoptee because God wants me to help other adoptees’?
What if I experienced prejudice in a foreign land so I can educate others and give voice to a sensitive issue?
What if I experienced an identity within the world and who the world says I am so I can relate to and comfort others struggling to make sense of who they are?
What if I experienced rejection multiple times so that I could minister to others that have felt they didn’t belong or fit in?
What if I am an adoptive parent because God wants me to voice the unique perspective of experiencing both sides of the adoption equation?
What if God planned for me to say “Yes” to Him later in my life so I could testify to the beauty He made out of the rubble, pain, and brokenness?
What if…?

What are your events, people and issues? Do you see any part of your own story through Esther’s? What prevents you from having the courage you need to act? What gives you the courage you feel in such circumstances?

Do you believe God put you in this place for just such a time as this?

I think He did because that is the beauty of His plan and not ours. If it were our plan there would be no event. no people. no issue. There would be no obstacle. no challenge. no pain. There would be no sacrifice. no forgiveness. no redemption. There would be no eternity.

Thank you Jesus for putting me in this place for just such a time as this!

I am a Korean adoptee, wife, adoptive mother and orphan advocate. It’s a privilege for
me to serve God and share the beauty of his redemption in my life. You can read more
on my blog “Smore Stories…life and contemplation in a racially mixed family.”