I set aside my book in awe of the way that God can speak straight to my heart. Have you ever experienced this? Where the words leap right off the page & jump straight to your core, inspiring you & challenging you all the same? Maybe you've even experienced this through lyrics to a song, or the storyline of a movie?
This week I was reading in the book "He Walks Among Us: Encounters with Christ in a Broken World" by Richard and Renee Stearns, and I came to the section titled "Why Me?"
To say I was touched is an understatement.
Hardships. Of many kinds. I've faced them. A lot of them.
I'm definitely not the only one.
I'm just another voice, joining in the song of pain, singing, "why do so many bad things happen?" Sound familiar?
A lot of people shake their fist at God & shout it like this:
"WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?"
For me, reading in this book has helped to change my perspective of this question.
But before I can acknowledge a new way of thinking, I must acknowledge the many, (probably millions at this point), times that I've wept & cried out to God, "WHY ME?!"
It's the human response. It's normal.
"Why, God?"
"Why is this happening?"
"Why do these things always happen?"
"Why does this keep happening?"
"Why is it always one thing after another?"
"Why is it that, when it rains, it pours?"
"Why me?"
"Why me?"
"Why me?!"
My pain drowns me in my sorrows & my perspective sinks down into a lonely abyss: my pain is great & I have been forsaken; I am not cared for.
All lies.
But when you're hurting, you definitely feel this way.
Richard Stearns shared Romans 8:35, 37 which says this:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
Along with that verse, Richard shared these words,
"Embedded somewhere deeply in our Christian consciousness is the sense that bad things shouldn't happen to good people. But in Romans 8, Paul taught us exactly the opposite: he clearly stated that hardship, famine, persecution, and danger will most certainly prey upon believers.
Yet Paul's comfort to us in light of that harsh reality is the life-giving reality that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ."
OKAY, WHOA THERE, YES & AMEN!!!!
Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, can separate us from Christ. As Christians, we are going to face trials of many kinds. That's just what comes with being a follower of Jesus. We can expect that.
James 1:2-4 says,
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
God uses all things to work in our favor. We get to grow our character in the midst of trials, and we also know that we are daily being made to look more and more like Jesus (#WorthIt).
Not only are we being made to look more like Jesus, but WE GET JESUS HIMSELF!
And nothing can take Him away from us.
Can we just stop & let that reality sink in for minute?
We get Jesus.
Oh, how wonderful!!
When Renee Stearns was diagnosed with breast cancer, she let her faith grow bigger than her fear, and she put her trust in God. Her response to her trial WRECKED ME with motivation to view my trials in light of this:
"why not me? I have a family that loves me and a strong faith in the Lord. Better me than someone who doesn't have those things."
-Renee Stearns
Whenever I shout out in my pain the infamous "why?!" I know my mind will trail back to this new question: "why not me?" What a privilege it is to suffer for Christ. What a privilege it is to be made to look more like Jesus. What a privilege it is that I have Jesus! I am a Christian. I am being made ready to withstand the test. The fact that I get to walk with Jesus through my trials is such a blessing. May the trials in my life only add to the sweet testimony that God is writing, drenched in the gospel, & saturated in His love & mercy & grace.
Why not me?
Jesus is mine. Nothing can change that.
xoxo,
katie