For Such a Time As This: A Note to Fellow Creatives

“For such a time as this” rang in my head as I posted a late-night progression of thoughts in an Instagram post.

I’m a writer who does her best work when feeling “inspired,” I’ll readily admit it . I don’t do great with planned posts, most of the time, or content that get fits into a particular niche.

I write when inspiration hits, and it was no different in light of the events of January 6th.

Watching white insurrections storm the capitol that day, my shock quickly found its voice in Instagram captions and messages with friends.

But I left out some of my own “inspired” words. I didn’t “finish” what I wrote that night. Instead, I chose to sit with the grief and feelings that came up upon remembering an old story in the Bible: namely, that an insurrectionist was chosen for mercy and freedom, instead of Jesus.

Travel back with me to Jesus’ day:

It was Jewish custom that at their festival of Passover, which was the night Jesus was arrested, to set one prisoner free to celebrate their own freedom from slavery in Egypt, many hundred years before. The governor offered this custom to the religious leaders and crowd, and suggested Jesus be the one released, because he had done nothing wrong, legally.

But the Jews rejected this suggestion, and instead chose another to receive mercy and freedom.

His name was Barabbas.

He was an insurrectionist. He murdered others, while fighting for Jewish freedom from Roman rule.

This is who the people wanted Jesus to be, but it was not who he was. 

The Roman government was oppressive and harsh, and the religious of the day thought God’s idea of saving would be to overthrow that government and take the country back. Barabbas represented that idea more than Jesus did. Barabbas had taken action towards that idea in his crimes.

The political-religious-elite, who rejected Jesus that night, wanted their own power to not be challenged. Especially not by someone claiming power and authority apart from their ideas of what it looks like.

Sound familiar?

Instead, Jesus found power and authority alongside the marginalized; Jesus refused to fight or challenge others for their rights.

That was who Jesus was, but it was not who they wanted him to be.

So they took back their power, they took his fate into their own hands, and they screamed at Pilate to murder this man, Jesus, instead.

In this story that almost feels reenacted here in 2021, I’m confronted by this whisper, again: “for such a time as this.”

Esther is another in the Bible who was chosen instead of someone else. She was a Jewish woman living in a foreign land, living in captivity that had become comfortable. It wasn’t cruel Roman rule; it was freedom to go home to Israel, but her family stayed.

And in staying, she was rounded up with all the other young women, to see who would become queen of this land. A beauty contest, if you will.

She cloaked her identity and her roots, and she was chosen as queen.

But then her people were threatened with holocaust by this government. Her uncle came to her, imploring her to unveil her identity and act on behalf of her people, and said:

“Perhaps it is for such a time as this that you have come to this Kingdom.”

She was threatened, not necessarily inspired. She was fearful and trembling.

She acted for the marginalized and oppressed—even if it might her own humiliation as she revealed that she was one of them.

She did was she was called to do. She saved her people and defeated enemies.

She used what skills she had: beauty, the king’s ear and trust, and her own wise words.

What skills do you and I have?

My fellow writers, creators, and artists: we will not always feel inspired, nor will our inspiration ever be enough.

We might come to a blank page and blinking cursor with everything but courage.

But we will always have the responsibility to do the thing we were created to do, which is not only to write or create, but to love.

For such a time as this, we love.

Not the works of hatred and insurrection.

But the marginalized, overlooked, underrated, and unloved.

And, for such a time as this: 

when insurrectionists storm buildings,

when the fear of an unknown future haunts us,

when prideful hearts grasp for power,

when white supremacy shows itself strong,

when isolation leaves us depressed,

when nothing feels as it should be:

Perhaps, it is for such a time as this that we are here.

To write, to create, to do what we were made for.

[Photo by Toa Heftiba via Unsplash]

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