More Reflections on "Why Me?"

As I was reflecting on the other day’s thought of, “Why me?” a few more answers came to mind…

1. Things happen so that we will trust God. The Apostle Paul wrote, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.” Then Paul concluded, “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead…On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, (II Corinthians 1:8b-10).

2. Things happen to make us humble. Paul said, “To keep me from becoming conceited…there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” The LORD answered Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (I Corinthians 12:7-9).

3. Things happen so that we will look at the bigger picture. Again, the Apostle Paul said, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (II Corinthians 4:16-18).

4. Things happen so that we can know the comfort of God. Paul said, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (II Corinthians 1:3-4).

5. Things happen so that God’s power will be revealed in us. Paul said, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” Read the rest of what Paul said about this in II Corinthians 4:8-11.

6. Things happen so that the works of God can be revealed. In John 9, Jesus disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

God has truly taken the “weak” things of the world to astonish the wise. Maybe in avoiding to ask, “Why me” I’ve been doing a smart thing. Perhaps the wiser thing for me to ask is, “Why not me?”