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Why me?

Life is full of the unexpected, and the only real guarantee is that things are guaranteed to change. People strive for stability in finances, careers and relationships, yet it seems that just when they think they are getting somewhere that proverbial carpet gets yanked out from under their feet. Sooner or later it seems like joy turns to sorrow and discouragement as they are met with set back after set back or with some devastating and tragic event.

At times like this we have a tendency to look toward heaven and ask, “Where are You? Why don’t You just go ‘poof’ and make my problems go away? “What have I done to deserve this?” and last but not least, “Why me?”

Trials and tribulations are often a natural result of living in a wayward world. Nevertheless, our understanding and merciful God has not left us without a way of escape. In 1 Corinthians 10:13 the scripture says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” It helps to know that our difficulties and tragedies are not random and senseless events but God knows what is going on and will help us to find our way not “out of our problem” but “through our problem”. We have an avenue of escape, not so we get away from the situation, but so we can “bear it” and grow by it.

Suffering refines us, teaches us compassion and draws us into a closer relationship with our Lord. You never will know the true nature of tea until you place it in hot water. In another allegory, in the refining of silver and gold, impurities will never rise to the surface if the metal is not place under extreme heat. And human hearts will never be purified and refined without suffering. It is our suffering and pain that drives us to the self analysis and prayer that moves us on to higher levels.

While it is true that it rains on the just and the unjust, it is equally true that God provides a spiritual raincoat and umbrella in the form of prayer and purpose. Our trials and tragedies only become senseless when we make them so. It is our choice. We can use them as stepping stones to a closer walk with God, to a sweeter more gentle spirit, to a more compassionate and loving heart and to the glory of a loving God who suffered on the cross for our sake. And when we do, we no longer say, “Why me” but rather, in the words of the greatest example of suffering, Jesus Christ, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42).

Pastor T. Zotzman
The Voice of Pentecost Church
#37-4th Avenue South
Williams Lake, B.C.(250) 392-1191