Borne for a purpose - Jesus Army Life

And who knows if you were not brought to the kingdom for such a time as this?

     The Book of Esther

(Please forgive the pun in the title. I like to play poetry with my words sometimes.)

There's value in a people's story.

One of my many ponderings this week has been whether it's possible for a small society of people to perform a role that serves the rest of humanity?

Of course it is.

I think of villages of fishermen, or warrior clans, or tribes of priests, and I realise that communities of people in the past were used to specialising in specific services far more than they are today.

But it raises further questions for me... What makes a local community choose one specialism over another? What causes a people to become priests rather than warriors? How are these communities shaped? And then, how is our community being shaped? What effect does our journey have on our character?

You know, it occurs to me that the calling of a people is perhaps more important than the calling of individuals.

Well, we've known a number of similar ailments among us lately. So much so that we're slowly becoming experts in helping one another to find a way through them. More than that, we've attended courses, consulted professionals, read reams of books and manuals between us and, of course, known first hand experience of certain maladies. We've even known some healings along the way.

And so, I find myself asking, 'Just what is God preparing us for?'

What is the work God has for us to do?

I believe that as a small community and as a larger church, we will not only survive but thrive in the future, but what skills will we have learned as a community? What character will we have? And how will it serve the society of God's people and our neighbours?

With these thoughts in mind an so many questions about the present, there's a line of a famous hymn comes to me:

Christ of my own heart, whatever befall - still be my vision, thou ruler of all.