“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
–Esther 4:14 (NIV)

I want to borrow from and expand on an illustration I heard recently in a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Jerry Cannon. He was preaching from the Book of Esther, where Mordecai challenged Queen Esther to speak up for her people, the Jews, whose lives were at stake. Their conversation ended with his words printed above.

As a metaphor, Dr. Cannon used the warning we get when we’re on a maps app that goes something like this: “There is a slowdown ahead, but you are still on the best route to your destination.” If you’re like me and sometimes impatient when you’re driving, your reaction is something akin to “Ugh,” or worse.

Slowdowns, detours, interstate “parking lots,” and wrong ways–we detest them all. We’re in the car, in route to our destination, and we don’t want any curveballs thrown our way, right?

And so it is with life. We make plans, set goals, and determine the course we should take. It’s all planned and we’re in control. You may be familiar with the old saying, “We make plans, and God just chuckles.” The scriptural version is found in Proverbs 16:9 (NIV): “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”

We find ourselves in a situation we didn’t anticipate and, like Esther, we adjust and take a different path we never expected.

Are you a control freak? Come on, admit it. Most folks are, at least to some extent. I bet few, if any of us, go through life singing “Que Sera Sera.” No! We don’t want to leave life up to chance and accept “whatever will be.” We want to chart our own course, and we do … until we don’t.

Life has a tendency to get in our way, doesn’t it? We’re on a job promotion track, until we watch the promotion go to a coworker. Our marriage is going swimmingly, until it begins to drown. Our health is great, until the doctor calls with unwelcome news. Our family’s whole and happy, until there’s an empty chair at the table. We all know the feeling. Everyone will likely face challenges like these. That’s life.

My website tagline is, “where setbacks are part of your journey, not your destination.” I learned that lesson the hard way in my personal life but, as a result, I grew stronger.

In a far less important area–my writing–setbacks are the rule, not the exception. There are a lot of “No thank-you’s” lobbed at writers brave enough to put their work out there to be judged.

I wrote about Charles Martin and J.K. Rowling two weeks ago–very successful writers who had a hard time getting started with their writing, but didn’t give up. John Grisham went through the same thing with A Time to Kill. He couldn’t even get publicity in his Mississippi town’s little newspaper, and now that novel is his all-time bestseller.

So, the take-home message is that each of us should expect roadblocks, setbacks, hangups, pushbacks, and other negative experiences, learn from them, and move on as a stronger person.

For, who knows, like Queen Esther, you could be at a place in your life “for such a time as this!”