Time & Place

“And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Several times over the last few months I have read that fifteen to twenty years ago, the publishing world was very different. Editors and agents would find diamonds in the rough and work with them, helping authors with good stories improve their writing skills. But now, the market is so flooded that few even accept unsolicited manuscripts, much less offer assistance to would-be-writers with a compelling story. No, if one wishes to be published, both the story and the writing skills must be exceptional from page one. At times, this news depresses me. Why couldn’t I be living during a different time? A time when what I want would be easier to obtain?

“And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Esther was the Bible class topic at my church Sunday morning. The teacher looked at a person in the class (not me) and said that he had been born now, in this time instead of, say, 1852, for a reason. That made me think. God decided he had a plan for my adult life in the twenty-first century.  A purpose that I could not fulfill in the twentieth or nineteenth centuries. His plan for me may have nothing at all to do with writing or publishing, but I trust that he has a plan. And I hope I am carrying it out.