Reason #523
Why? Do find yourself questioning what God has done or why he has done it? And why you, why your family, your health, your career, your life? And maybe you aren’t asking it in the why form negatively, maybe you’re asking in the positive form as in “Why me, why such good things?” But either way, we spend a lot of our time asking God why. Desiring an explanation and trying to find a reason in this workings.
I laid in bed last night asking a new “why” question that had been presented to me earlier in the day. A song came to my mind that I heard around Christmas. The song is written from Joseph’s point of view and wondering why God chose him to be the earthly father of Jesus. And why did God choose Mary to be Jesus’ mother? And why did he do it the way that He did, when He did? He ends up saying , “this is such a strange way to save the world.” True, isn’t it? Doesn’t make an ounce of sense, and it didn’t when it was happening. Why did God choose these two people to carry out the single most important mission there ever was? What was so special about them anyway? Why not someone else? Surely there had to be other people that were as kind and Godly and good as Mary and Joseph. And why not before or after their time? Yet scripture tells us that He uses the simple ways of the world to confound the wise. And His ways are not our ways, they are higher. So God isn’t really concerned about doing things that “make sense,” I suppose you could say. And maybe that’s it. Mary and Joseph were just really simple people who did their best to obey and trust God and so although, to us, it would make sense for the King of Kings to be born in a palace, it makes even more sense to God that He be born in a stable. Because through this very unusual and highly confusing scenario, God was going to receive the most glory, and that right there is what God’s most concerned about.
Why you? Why this? Why now? Well, maybe it’s the very fact that God is using you, your health, your career, your relationships, your family to show who He is. Maybe the whole answer to why is because God desires to reveal His glory through you. Ever thought about it that way? But it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have to. Faith doesn’t make sense half of the time, and God never asks us to understand it. Take it from me, a girl who is really simple. A girl who has never accomplished great things in her life or is well known. A girl who looks the same as everyone else and doesn’t have riches galore. One who is insecure and struggles and cries too much, who is really not that brave and who has been broken and scarred. A girl who will probably never have a claim to fame or be known around the world. One who deals with shame and regret and just tried to figure it out one day at a time. A girl who requires a lot of patience, a lot of grace and extra doses of forgiveness. The things God has done in my life don’t make sense. But when I realized the answer to “why” was so that God could receive glory, I realized the best question to ask was "how." So whatever it is you’re going through, ask how. How can I serve you best, Lord? How can I give you the most glory? How can I be pleasing to you? How do you want to use me? Because it's often in the how that we discovery the why. And we realize that how is so much more important anyway. So remember that no matter the reason, He ultimately wants to use you to reveal His glory. Don't worry about why, just let Him help you figure out the how and you'll be amazed at the incredible things He can do through you.
#523 - Because the how is more important than the why.
“Look, God is all-powerful. Who is a teacher like him? No one can tell him what to do, or say to him, ‘You have done wrong.’ Instead, glorify his mighty works, singing songs of praise. Everyone has seen these things, though only from a distance.“Look, God is greater than we can understand..." - Job 36:22-26