THE WHY's OF LIFE by Vicki Taylor

There are times in our lives when we ask the question “Why?” Why does this happen? Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? Why do people have to suffer? I think you understand by now, the why’s of life, we all have them. We all ask them.

But we all don’t understand them. Sometimes I hear people say, “The first thing I’m going to ask God when I get to heaven is _______.”  You know, I don’t think that’s what heaven is going to be about, our grievances. Heaven will be about … well, Jesus. And we will be worshiping Him.  

In the meantime, we still live in this fallen world, and we must learn to trust Him through the hard times; even the times we don’t understand. We can only do this by trusting in His Word and listening for Him to speak. I love the 23rd Psalm where David reminds us that the Lord is our Shepherd; I have everything I need. If we could only remember that … “I have everything I need.” That means I will lack nothing! No uncertainty coming my way should frighten me or discourage me. He is my Shepherd and is watching over me. We need to stop and realize that He is there, He listens to us, and He hears our cries for help. He sees the whole picture, and knows the final outcome. It is our suffering that brings about our growth. It’s those valley experiences that allow us to realize that God has us where we need to be, learning His truths and following His will. Sometimes those times are painful; most times they are painful.  

When my husband was diagnosed with cancer for the second time, I asked the “why” question myself. Why did this happen to him again; why did he have to suffer? We had just lost everything we had in a business that failed. He had survived one bout with cancer five years earlier and we thought things might be better health wise. Then, Bam!! We are hit again. Watching someone you love going through treatment is heart wrenching and painful for the caregiver too. But…it is a process that God took me through to teach me things about Him I would not have learned otherwise. It also brought me to a deeper relationship with Him. Some days, He was ALL I HAD. He was all the strength I had, He was all the sense I had, and He was all I had to cope with…period. And I was the one who had to be strong. My husband was suffering. Heaven forbid that he thought I was falling apart too. 

What I learned through that time was He is my Shepherd. He gives me everything I need, nothing more, nothing less. I learned to lean on Him completely…no one else. He got me up in the morning and saw me through the day. I learned to live Romans 8:28. Do all things really work out for my good because I choose to love Him and am called according to His purpose for my life? Yes, because all the promises in His Word are yes in Christ. I learned that I am His child and He held me when I ran to Him in my greatest need. And you know what? He’ll do the same for you. He has all you need too. He will carry you when you cannot walk, He will feed your soul when you are weak and starving, and He will hold you when you hurt. I know...I have been there.   

I’ll end with Psalm 73:23 & 26 - Yet I am always with you; you hold Me by My right hand. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart forever and my portion forever.

Don’t give up and don’t give up on God; He will carry you through, yes, even through the “why’s” of life.  I know this, because He has carried me through many, many of my “why’s.”  Every single one of them!  Do not lose heart. He’s holding you in His hand.