Sunday Afternoon Tea

Welcome to tea time this afternoon. For the new readers of Coffee Tea Books & Me, I came up with the idea of Sunday Afternoon Tea from the inspiration of Edith Schaeffer's Sunday Teas at L'Abri. It was a time for tea and food but also lots of conversation.

I awoke this morning to the sound of the furnace blowing warm air into the bedroom. The walk to the county road for the newspaper was quite chilly, even wearing a thick sweater. It is once again the time for hot tea and the occasional hot chocolate (although my morning preference continues to be a large mug of coffee, currently I'm trying Seattle's Best Breakfast Blend).

We are in that time of year where we have cold, cool, warm, and hot days (all in one week) but thankfully, cool will win the battle before cold stays and this hot summer will soon be history.

As I've mentioned many times, I often don't know what to chat about on Sunday until something comes up during the week. This past week was no different. I was finished with my morning housework and sat down to rest for a few minutes, going through the Direct TV guide to see what was playing at the moment.

I came across the funeral for D. James Kennedy and decided to catch a few minutes of it. Well, I was completely captivated. Never have I experienced a funeral for anyone such as this. Not only were the speakers and music amazing but there was such peace and joy permeating the entire service.

There were two main themes in the words given that day, the first being the call God places on each life and the second (and quite serious) was the plea to the next generation to pick up the baton and run the race set before them. The words given by men in their 70s and 80s to those who are younger (and compared to them, even I would be considered younger!).

They asked those who were coming after them to stand up for the fight for morality, the unborn, the sanctity of marriage, the rights of religious freedom, purity in an immoral world. They set before all of us a beacon to remind us the war is raging and we cannot spend our days pretending all is well. They shared their concerns at how few are coming up who are brave enough to go against the flow of society today.

Where are those who are coming behind? The speakers... especially Chuck Colson, James Dobson, and Richard DeVos reminded those listening that this generation is either passing away or handing down their ministries to those coming behind.

They also talked about The Call on each life. How James Kennedy had at first fought The Call. How others had run from their Call only to submit and go on to do that for which they were created. They reminded us of the many Calls God places before us and how each is individual. The call to be a wife and mother is no less than the call to be a pastor or priest.

Our reminder is to stay close to He who called us, to meet with Him each day for the day's instructions, to influence those whom He places in our daily path. For our Call is lived out each day, one moment at a time, one year at a time, one lifetime of service.

Of course the words of Mordecai to Esther were used, the words from the Book that have made many who wanted to run from our own Call take courage and go on into the night.

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 royal position
for such a time as this?"

Esther 4:14

I believe we are near the end of the Book. What an amazing time for which to be chosen to live. I admit I walk through places like Old Sturbridge Village and long for the simplicity of an earlier generation but that is not where God has placed me.

I am often tired. I quite often don't feel up to par. My mind is not what it used to be. I am not as brave as I was in my youth. But I still have breath in me, I can still write, I can still speak, I continue to have people come across my path each day, I am still a wife and mother and grandmother.

I used to think my main Call was to help change the whole world for the better (what can I say, I was quite young at the time). Now I know my path is mostly here at home, within the (welcome) confines of a cozy house at the edge of a forest, in the country, near a major University.

I was placed here "for such a time as this". There is no one else on this earth walking the path God has placed before me.

What about you my Tea Time friend?

Why are you here, today, this moment and this hour?

Who do you influence each day?

What is your "for such a time as this"?