Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the daily challenges.  This week’s topic is part of our series called EPIC where we’ve been exploring how Jesus is found throughout the Old Testament part of the Bible. We’re reading some epic old stories from the Old Testament, some of which you might have heard before, some of which might be new to you. But our hope is that in each of them we’ll see how they’re part of one big epic story: the story of the Bible, the story of the world, God’s story.

Our daily challenges are meant to help you explore what it means to follow Jesus, even if you don’t have a lot of time. That’s why we have a rhythm that keeps us in sync, even if we’re not a community that meets together in person regularly. This means every Monday we introduce the week’s idea. Every Tuesday we study it in the Bible. Every Wednesday we see how that challenges and transforms our thinking on the topic. Thursdays we try to apply and live it out. Friday is a day for prayer and reflection before we take a rest on Saturday, and Sundays we meet together with other Christians in community.

Do you ever sense that you were put on this earth, at a certain time and place for a purpose?

Have you ever said “I was made for this” or “This is why I was placed on God’s green earth?”

We can think of powerful leaders through history, who God used to make the world a better place.  They might have seemed uniquely suited to the job they did.  They had the education, skill or circumstances that allowed them to make a real difference.

But this can happen with fairly regular people as well.  I heard a story this year about a team of Canadian nurses who travelled to Nepal to conduct fairly routine medical relief.  Right before their trip, a devastating earthquake shattered the country, and those nurses were in the right time at the right place to do incredible work.  Perhaps they were there, for such a time as this.

That line comes from the story we’ll explore this week, about a woman named Esther, a Queen in the Old Testament.  She had an opportunity to save an entire race of people, and the man encouraging her to take that risk said – And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Question: Have you ever been in the right place at the right time, to make a real difference?