Whoever Is There

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit." (John 15:16)

Ask yourself a dangerous question. Why am I here? Not in general. Here, in this church, in this town, in this job you did not exactly plan, on this street, beside these particular people who drive you to distraction. It is a dangerous question, because when people begin asking it, sometimes they pack up and leave.

But there is another thing to recognize instead. The Spirit of God drew you here on purpose. Not by accident. Not as a placeholder while something better loads. Not as a punishment for a decision you made years ago that you are still paying off. On purpose. There is a person near you who is going to need somebody, and it will not be a program, and it will not be a stranger, and it will not be somebody more qualified than you. It will be whoever is there.

You are whoever is there. That is not a consolation prize, the assignment given to those who could not get a better one. It is a commission, and it was issued before you moved in. The very ordinariness of your place, the address you sometimes resent, is the field you were planted in to bear fruit. Stop waiting to be relocated to a more significant life. Look around at the unremarkable one you have, and recognize that God put you exactly here, on purpose, for the person who has not yet knocked.