“If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Esther 4:14

In The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel gives the light of Earendil to Frodo Baggins who doesn’t know what it’s for or when to use it.

It isn’t until he later encounters the monstrous spider Shelob in her ominous lair that the right moment finally comes, and he realizes it. 

There is a time and there is a place, and sometimes those two converge in a moment for which we have been uniquely prepared. 

In Esther’s case, she had been prepared for a timely moment in which she was called upon to speak up on behalf of her people to save them from genocide.

Mordecai reveals this to her, and thankfully she answered the call. In that salient moment, she stepped up with courage and spoke out to deliver the Jews.

In our own lives and day, we also face moments like this—when we have an innate sense that we have been uniquely prepared for something before us. 

It could be stepping up to confront an emerging crisis, stepping out to pursue a compelling opportunity, or even stepping into a pressing cause. Whatever the situation, for us it’s momentous, and we can feel it. 

And when that time comes, we cannot be silent and we must not be still. That moment is uniquely ours to speak up and to step out with courage and conviction to head off a crisis, to seize the opportunity, or to take up that cause. 

So, how do you know when that moment arrives? God will reveal it. In the same way that God used Mordecai to reveal Esther’s cultural moment, God will also reveal yours and mine.

Sometimes he uses others to tell us, and other times God tells us Himself. This is why we must be ready—ready to hear, ready to receive, ready to go wherever, whenever, and however He calls. 

Friends, I’m happy to share that my moment has arrived, and I am eager and ready to take up the mantle of leadership at FACT to secure a Tennessee that respects biblical marriage, values traditional family, cherishes human life, and protects religious liberty.

I am truly honored and thankful to be joining you and celebrating 20 YEARS of standing for faith, family, and freedom in the state of Tennessee!