WHY ME LORD?
Bob Marcaurelle Job. 7:20; Rom. 8:28
Text: “Why do you use me for target practice? “In all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Job. 7:20, TEV; Rom. 8:28, NIV).
Most Christians do two things: say it is not right to question God and to question God. Who among us has not felt like asking, “God, why are you using me for your target practice?” The question exposes one of our deepest needs- a sense of purpose in pain, some kind of meaning to our apparently meaningless blows.
Are we just here, like seaweed, to be battered and blown by the winds and waves of trouble, or are we placed here, like boats, with power to travel through storms,with rudders to chart our course, and with a destination? Are we alone in the water or is there a God who placed us here for a reason and pain and seemingly unanswered prayers in times of pain, are part of some larger plan for good?
When God called Paul He told him all that he would suffer for his name (Acts 9:16. And, oh how he suffered- stonings, shipwrecks, sharp pain, slander, and beheading. But from the fire itself, he cried out, "We are not alone. There is a plan in this madness.In all things” he says, “God works for the good of those who love Him and are called to be a part of his purpose and designs” (Rom. 8:28 / See Ampl. Version)
If we approach horrible events philosophically, looking mostly for answers, we are doomed to be disappointed.
Is God the author of the death of my child?
Does God allow it?
Or do things just happen and God is there to help when it does? Who knows the origin?
We must approach such things practically and relationaly. As a human being, we are part of a suffering world, and therefore, should say, "Why not me? Who am I to be spared? Jesus was not. Paul was not. Most human beings are not. But as children of God, we can go on to ask,“Why me, Lord?” in a more positive way. We do that when we ask God to help us find the good we can dig out of the bad.
Robert Schuller says, “Within every adversity lies a sleeping possibility.” Today we look at some things God can do with our hurts if we let Him.
I. HURT CAN DRAW US TO GOD.
The very fact that we say, “Why me, Lord?” means we have been driven to God and to a deeper level of communication with Him. C.S. Lewis says God whispers to us in our pleasures but shouts to us in our pain. We humans may go to God to accuse God, to bargain with God, to shake our fist at God, to bow before God and accept the good with the bad, to ask why or to tell Him we will not question Him - but we go!
Illustration: When the storm hit the ship Jonah was sleeping in, the Bible says, “All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god” (Jon. 1:5). I love the story of the plane where the pilot told the passengers an engine was on fire. One man yelled frantically - “Do something religious - somebody!” A Catholic pulled out her beads. An Episcopalian pulled out his prayer book. The unchurched put their face in their hands and prayed. And a Baptist took off his hat and took up an offering. When the ship is sinking or the plane is going down,thoughts turn naturally to God.
The New American Standard Bible says, “God CAUSES all things to work together for good.” The New International Version says, “In all things God WORKS for the good of those who love him.” Things do not work together for good,all by themselves. They do this when we put everything in God’s hands, and ask Him to teach us the life lessons we need and the ministry we may find in life’s hurting places.
II. HURTS CAN DRAW US TO OTHERS.
One of these good things God might work, is to give us more love for others, and less selfishness. It’s amazing how selfish we are. We cling to our clan, our family, our friends, our church. When we see a street person, a wheelchair, a blind person, or any other of life’s walking wounded - we shy away. Why? Because they are different! They make us uncomfortable. We wish them well but do nothing to help them. It is only until life thrusts us into some great hurt that we join them. Our clan changes. We see life through their eyes, because we are looking from where they are.
Illustration: Christopher Reeves, who played Superman, learned he wasn’t Superman when a fall from a horse left him paralyzed from the neck down. Michael J. Fox,diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, said goodbye to his television career. But he said, “Hello!” to finding a cure for Parkinson’s and to working with and for all who are afflicted. Christopher Reeves, like Fox, works with and for the paralyzed. Many people turn their hurts into helping others, and we who know the Lord, can go a step further, and help them find the hand of God and the hope of heaven.
III. HURT CAN DRAWS US TO OUR BEST SELVES
(Phil. 4:12-13).
Hurts can draw us to God, to others and finally to ourselves - to our best selves. We never know who we really are until we are tested. Paul says,
“I know what it is to be poor or have plenty. . . I have lived under all kinds of conditions. . .Christ gives me the strength to face anything” (Phil. 4:12-13, CEV).
Illustration: I saw a sign, “Christians are like tea. Their strength does not come out until they are in hot water!” We don’t know ourselves, our potential, our courage, our faith, our strength in Jesus, until some crisis brings it out.
Illustration: Renee Bondi, in 1988, was on top of the world, She was a Christian, a high school choral teacher and a girl about to be married. She always made it a practice to instill faith in her students, faith that they and God could handle anything. One night, exhausted, she fell out of her bed, landed on her head and was immediately paralyzed from the neck down. She tells that she asked the question of our text - Why? God, she said, with His still, small voice, told her she didn’t select the songs of her life, but if she would trust him, she could make beautiful music. She asked herself if she had the faith she had taught her students. She did and God has made her life a beautiful song. Mike, her fiancé, married her. She sings songs she has written to prisoners, teenagers and church groups. She has formed three youth choirs in her church. She looks at her whole life now and says, “Now this is music!”
Application: Folks, life is a test and the lessons grow harder the longer we live and it is those people who overcome obstacles that we admire the most. Right now, the top box office movie is”Gladiator,” the story of a man, against all odds and injustices, who as the saying goes “fought with a scabbard when the sword was gone.” Louis Pasteur made many of his best discoveries after a paralytic stroke at age 46.
IV. HURTS CAN DRAW US TOWARD HEAVEN
((Phil. 1:22-23).
Paul was a chronic sufferer. He was slandered, shipwrecked, stoned, left for dead and suffered from some terrible pain he called a “thorn in his body.” And Paul, perhaps more than any New Testament writer, appreciated the hope of heaven we Christian have. Listen to what he wrote from a jail cell, “The desire to break camp here and be with Christ is powerful. Some days I can think of nothing better.” (Phil. 1:22, 23 “The Message” Translation). And again he says, “. . .we ourselves. . .groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for. . .the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23).
It’s amazing how much we Christians think about this world and how little we think about the world to come. We get real emotional about heaven when a loved one dies, but back into the whirlwinds of life, heaven slips back to the bottom of our interests. It’s stirred to the surface from time to time but this earth is the focus of our attention. It is only as this earth hurts us more and more that we begin to “groan inwardly” and “wait eagerly” for heaven.
Illustration: James Dobson told of a television docudrama with three families, each of whom had been told one family member was dying of cancer. They showed the shock, the tears, the unbelief, the anger, the acceptance and the courage of the days and weeks that led to death.
The one he remembered most was a very humble black pastor of a small inner-city church. The pastor and his wife received the news of his illness calmly. They thanked the doctor for his honesty and kindness. In the car they joined hands, bowed their heads and recommitted themselves to the Lord.
The TV camera recorded his last sermon to his little church. He said, “Some have asked me if I’m mad at God, but I have only love for Him. God did not do this to me. We live in a world of suffering and sin and death. Our Lord suffered for our sins so why shouldn’t I share some of His suffering. I’m going to a better place where there are no tears, no suffering and no heartache.” Then Dobson said, he broke out in a song. Those were his last words to his people.
Folks, I cannot feel sadness for that man. I feel far more sadness for the healthy people: men, women, boys and girls, who sat in those pews, heard and saw such a testimony for God, and do not know the Lord.
One great ministry we can have as Christians, is to go to life’s unchurches sufferers, and talk to them about heaven. Maybe now, with all their trinkets gone, they will listen. We can lead them to Him who can not only give purpose in this life but healing in the next. We can tell the paralyzed man that when he gets to heaven, he will "run like a deer" (Isa. 35:6) for a thousand years,if he chooses. We can tell the blind they can see more glories of this universe than any astronaut.
The hope of heaven is not some "pie in the sky by and by" sentimentality; it is the only thing that makes this senseless planet of ours make any sense whatsoever.And is can be a wonderful evangelistic tool.
V. HURT CAN DRIVE US FROM GOD (Job. 2:9).
None of this is automatic. The blessings come for those who love God in spite of pain. Suffering can make us better but it can also make us bitter. It can drive us to God or build a wall between us and God. It can drive us inward to discover hidden strengths or to self pity. It can drive us to love and help people or to be jealous of their good fortune and to actually hate them for having what we do not have. Job’s wife, a sufferer too, who may have lost her faith, said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job. 2:9).
Matthew Henry catches her meaning, “Is this a God to be loved and served?” Mark Twain had little use for religion. When he told his daughter of a famous man he ate dinner with, she said, “Daddy. I’ll bet you know everybody but God.” His view of life proved it. He wrote that every year, millions who die, “scoff at the pitiful world and the useless universe and violent, contemptible human race.” Life’s sufferings, especially the death took his wife, drove him not just away from God, but against God. One of his last books was an attack upon Christianity. Twain wore his unbelief proudly; but beneath the pride was probably a lonely, broken heart. A poet puts it,
“She set a rose to blossom in her hair/The day faith died/Now glad, she said, and free I go and life is wide. . ./But through long nights she stared into the dark/And knew she lied.” (Author Unknown)
We may never know why God sends or allows pain to knock on our door; but we cannot bear the thought of life without Him or pain without purpose. And even if we do not get any answers, we know there is an answer, and we take His hand. And if we look closely, we see the scars of His sufferings on them. And if we look in his face, we see the One who said in extreme suffering, "My God, why?" His name is Jesus.
