Photo Source: www.creationswap.com by Matt Gruber
Often when I find myself asking, “God, why am I going through this?” what I’m really saying is, “This isn’t fair, and I shouldn’t have to be going through this!”
Am I the only one?
When I find myself in a situation that may be emotionally, physically, or financially difficult my usual response is to complain, to look for pity, to blame others for my circumstance. I may even couch it in prayer and cry out to God asking, “why?” But I’ve come to realize what I need to be asking is “What?”
My wife and I usually have a book that we’re reading together, not in a book club, we both read our copies and talk about it kind of way, but a read aloud to each other way. One book that we started last year was “The Hiding Place.” At the time we found ourselves going through some difficult emotional struggles due to a failed adoption attempt. I was asking, “Why, God?” a lot.
And as I read this true story of hardship and struggle, I began to see that I was asking the wrong question. Instead of pitying myself, or complaining about my circumstances, I began trying to accept the circumstance and listen for what God wants me to learn and how He wants me to mature. So when I find myself struggling I’ve started asking, “What, God, do you want to teach me through this experience?”
Instead of looking for a way out of the difficulty, I’ve begun seeking contentment and understanding.
There is a passage in the book where the two sisters are in a concentration camp. One sister is praying and thanking God because fleas are infesting their barracks. Bitter at their circumstances the other sister cannot understand why she is thanking God for fleas. Her answer was that God wants us to give thanks, not necessarily for those things, but in all things. I am thankful she says, because the fleas keep the guards from entering their barracks, and they were able to keep the Bible they had hidden there.
Like those sisters who were in a place so difficult I can’t even comprehend it, I have to look beyond the self pity and look beyond the circumstances I find myself in. I must not place blame and ask the “why?” questions. Why did I end up here? Why is this happening to me? Why do I have to go through this? Instead I must ask the “What? questions. What is your purpose in this? What do you want me to learn from this? What do you want to bring about because of this? As in all things in this Christian life, we must get the focus off of ourselves, and onto God.
Am I the only one?