I doubt anyone reading this column could have imagined the rapid impac the coronavirus has made upon our lives. In less than a week's time schools have been canceled, churches learned to use streaming video, and a major city in Missouri of all places has issued a mandatory "stay-at-home" order. These are strange times.

Strange and out of control times remind me of the story Esther. Esther was one of many young women snatched up from their lives as a candidate to replace the recently removed queen. Esther's life rapidly changed directions.

However, while Esther was enjoying the benefits and the protection from the palace, her people were systematically targeted. Esther's uncle Mordecai comes to her in the evening, imploring her to go to the king and plead the cause of her people. She reluctantly agrees when Mordecai says that it was perhaps for "such a time as this," she was elevated to her place of influence in the kingdom.

One of the many reminders from the story of Esther is that her life took a direction she did not welcome. A course was not beyond the hand of the Lord. Often we plan our lives with the expectation that as long as we do not offend God, he will bless our plan. Reality is that the Lord may have a direction for our lives that we could not see, and if we were looking for would not want to see. Calamity and redirection do not automatically mean that God is absent.

Esther also reminds us an open heart goes a long way with closed doors. Esther knew that her people were suffering, but she also understood the barriers she had to cross to plead her case to the king.

When Esther opened her heart to her people's plight and acted trusting the Lord in faith, her fears of the obstacles she would have to bridge diminished. Faith subdued her fear. She would do what she could, which was enough.

Esther reminds us that there are no wasted moments are. Each event, even the ones entirely out of our control, can be used by the Lord to make significant impacts. The Lord can use even our moments of uncertainty to turn mourning to dancing and tragedy to triumph.