So do all who live in such times

I was going through my old papers, and I found something I wrote a few years ago. I presume, from the content, that it was 2008. And I presume, from the style, that it was meant to be spoken. I don't think I ever used it anywhere. So I suppose it can make its debut here!

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How many of you have watched lord of the Rings? Ok?

Well, if you haven't, I encourage you to! One of my favourite scenes in the story is this: We have a land where a huge war is brewing... and we have Frodo, who is just a pretty normal guy, from a small town, nobody special. And as things turn out a really major responsibility for protecting their land from this major attack falls to him... and its difficult. He is speaking to Gandalf, who is his mentor sortof, about it. He is saying that he wishes these things weren't happening in is time, to him, his family, his community, his nation.

The same way we would wish for peaceful lives...
"Why AIDS?" "Why the situation in Zim?" "Why xenophobia?" "Why racism, violence, crime, potential recession, escalating oil prices, escalating food prices, corruption... the things we worry about, our families worry about..."
"Why now, why us? Why do these things happen in our generation?" "Why are we in SA now, when people might think things are looking a bit precarious?" "We wish they weren't happening now, to us and our people."

And Gandalf, his mentor, replies to this wish:
"So do I, and so do all who live in such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

We don't get to decide where we will be born, or when, or the situation we will be born into. It says in Acts 17 that God determined the times set for them and the exact places were they should live. If you're living in South Africa today, its because God chose to put you here. With full knowledge of the situation, with full knowledge of the problems.

What you decide is what you are going to do in the time and place and situation God put you.

Guys, do you think that God is worried about the future of our nation? We've been watching these stories of xenophobic attacks on the news recently... do you think it freaks God out? Do you think he is having emergency meetings? Or putting together a working group to investigate the problem?

Or do you think perhaps that he has already got a plan? Plan A, just a continuation of the plan he has always had, that he has put the solutions in the hands and hearts of his people, that he has already called his church to be salt and light in a community he knew before time he would set them in?

Do you think these events suprise God? Or do you think he has already gifted people, called people, equipped people to be the answer?

Do you think God is waiting for Thabo Mbeki to announce Zimbabwe is a crisis situation? Or address the nation on xenophobia? Do you think God is waiting for the government to do something about poverty or AIDS or job creation?

Or do you think he is waiting for his church, his people, us, who he is already equipped and enabled, to rise up and actually do what he has called them to do?