One of my favorite stories of the Bible is the story of Esther, a young girl taken from her home to become a “contestant” per say for the role of Queen. Esther, a Jew, hides the fact that she is Jewish, uses a different name, and becomes Queen in a land that hates Jewish people. A time comes when she must defend her people, for she is their only voice. Esther 4:16, “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast for me; and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I also and my maids will fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
One of my favorite books is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. To admit such tells a bit of my personality most are not aware for once you have read it, no other plot can ever compare. But it is a toast which Edmund Dantes, aka The Count of Monte Cristo, offers to a young man turning sixteen which intrigues me the most. “Life is a storm my young friend, you will bask in the sunlight one moment be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into the storm as you shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst for I will do mine.”
I, myself, have been known to shout such a phrase into the wind when life has dealt a crippling blow against me.
My grandmother loved the Lord. She came from an aristocratic home in Atlanta, Georgia. Her father was Attorney General for the State of Georgia. He tried a case involving a black man and a white woman and found the black man innocent. My grandmother remembers the night the KKK came to her home looking for her father. Her mother met them on the front steps with a gun and five children standing firmly behind her. There was no doubt she’d shoot any one of them without blinking an eye. “I have no cause to kill any of you;” she stated firmly, “Yet I will.”
Courage comes from a most unexpected place and when backed by God empowers us to Be Unstoppable. It is a boldness within that shouts to the world, “You may have knocked me down this time; but I’m coming back.”
No matter where you are in the life, The Creator of the Universe has an arm strong enough, long enough, compassionate enough, and comforting enough to rescue you. You only need to reach up and grab hold.
