location, location, location

OUR FIRST HOME - SACRAMENTO, CA

M and I had a conversation with a pastor once about whether or not God really cares where we live. If it matters to God if I live in California or Oklahoma. After all, God's work can be done anywhere. We can love our neighbors no matter where we live. Right?
When we were making the decision whether to leave Sacramento and return to our hometown, to where our family lived, I thought about this often. I loved my job and did not want to leave my current employer and coworkers. It was this idea, that I could fulfill my life's work anywhere, that helped make the transition easier.


What I have begun to realize, though, is that it does matter. While it's true that I can live and love anywhere, I can only fulfill God's purpose for this time in my life exactly where I am now. He needs and wants me here, for a reason.

In fact, I can think of many things that would not have happened had we stayed in Sacramento.

In my weekly Bible study, we have been looking intently at the book of Esther. Perhaps the most well known verse in the book of Esther is this one:

"...Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

Esther 4:14b (NLT)

During the week that we studied this verse, we were asked to think of God's divine purpose for our life. 
For Esther, her living situation, her status as queen and her life's history, were divinely relevant for that time, that event. Who she was and where she lived did matter. Without it, she would have had no influence or power to make change or to fulfill her God-designed destiny.

What if we thought about every decision with our divine destiny in mind? Would it change how we live or the choices we make? Just something to think about.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Philippians 1:6 (NLT)