The Why Factor

“Why me?”

Tears flowing from unblinking eyes, she looked at me for the answer.  All other eyes in the room also seemed focused in my direction as I looked back at my crying sister, reached for her hand, and with all the love in my heart, simply said, “Why not you?”

Her lament that night was concerning an issue that she had been dealing with for many years.  It was burdensome, it was embarrassing, and it often caused her schedule to be interrupted with little notice.  Much like Paul, she had begged God to take it from her.  And also like Paul, He had not.  That night she spoke to me, but she was really crying out to God, asking Him, “Why do I have to do this?”

But she was asking the wrong question.  The real question is, “Why do I get to do this?”

James tells us in his first few verses to consider it joy when we face trials. And it’s often the go-to scripture when someone else is struggling through something.  But it’s one thing to read it.  It’s one thing to say it.  It’s a whole other thing to do it.  Joy?  Joy when you are laid off from your job?  Joy when your son is living on the streets, slipping further and further into the depths of the drug world? Joy when your marriage is all but over?  Where is the joy in any of this?

You won’t find it if you look to your circumstance, for joy is not found there; it is found in the Lord.  And it is only when we put our full trust in Him that despite the tears and despite the pain, there is hope.  Hope that even when we cannot see it, cannot even fathom how it could possibly be used for good, God will use our circumstance for His glory.

In his Gospel, John tells us of a man who had been born blind.  Just before Jesus healed him, the disciples had asked why this man was suffering from his affliction—had his parents sinned? Had he sinned? Whose fault was it?

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him—John 9:3

This man was blind so that others could see the glory of God?  I’m sure as he had sat begging at the road’s edge and being dismissed and ridiculed, that he did not think his condition was fair.  I’m sure he asked on many occasions, “Why me?”

But then Jesus healed him.  And thousands of years later, we are still talking about that man.  Not because of him, but because of what Jesus did through him.

Most often our trials are not even about us.

How can that be?  How can our suffering help someone else?  Because people are watching.  They see us sporting the Jesus T-shirts and fish bumper stickers and the cross pendants. They see us smiling and raising our hands on the mountain top.  But what do they see when the trial comes?

In the book of Daniel we hear about three men that faced a fiery trial. Literally. Because they refused to bow down to the King and worship his gods, he was furious. He ordered them to be thrown into the fire and asked them, “What god will be able to rescue you now?”  Daniel 3:19-23 describe that in the king’s fury he demanded that the heat be turned up.

 He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace…The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up [the men], and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.

We read that passage in less than a minute, but think about what was happening in real time.  These men stood there as they were being tied up.  And not just loosely wrapped, but tied carefully by skillful soldiers.  The soldiers were accustomed to men kicking and flailing before being forced into the fire, so they would have used unbreakable ropes and tied their knots meticulously.

And so the three men stood there, bound by the ropes of their circumstance, and watched as the fire got hotter.  This took time. There was no thermostat on a wall that the king could ordered turned up. No, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stood, and watched as coal was heaped upon coal, and chunks of wood were thrown in one at a time.

They stood.  Bound.  As the fire intensified.

Did their faith waver?  Would yours?  Did their resolve begin to melt as the beads of sweat ran down their brow?  No, they stood.  And they waited.  As the furnace got hotter, and the flames grew higher.

And when it was time, they moved forward.  The fire was so hot that at the entrance to the furnace, the soldiers escorting them burst into flames.  That’s some intense heat!  There they stood on the threshold of the furnace, no longer guarded, no longer being forced into the flames.  They could have taken this opportunity to run.  Well, maybe not run, but at the very least, bunny-hopped around the side.  Yes, they would have avoided the flames.

But they still would have been bound.

In verse 17, they had stated to the king that “our God is able.”  It does not matter the intensity of the flame, our God IS able.  And knowing this, the three men willingly fell into the fire.

And you know what? In the middle of the smoke and the ash and the flame, people were watching.  When the king looked into the furnace, he was astonished, because although they had put three men in, he could see four walking around. Unbound. And unharmed.

God had not saved them FROM the fire; He saved them IN the fire.

Are you bound by your circumstances and side-stepping the furnace?  Or are you moving forward boldly into the flames, knowing that God will meet you there? If these men had avoided the fire, they would have also missed a personal encounter with God.

And as is often the case, this encounter was not only for them. When they emerged from the fire, verse 27 tells us that there was a crowd gathered, and everyone witnessed that “the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.”

Oh yes, people are watching.  When someone peeks inside your furnace, what do they see?  Are you crumpled up in a heap screaming from the heat?  Or do they see you standing amidst the flames, walking with God?  Our faith needs be non-flammable. When we walk through the flames of our trials with complete and utter trust in God, it brings Him glory.

And it has a lasting impact on other people.  The king who before had been mocking God ended up praising Him and ordering others to give Him due respect. All because he was watching when someone else faced a fiery trial.

These three men. The blind man.  People saw them walking through the flames and stumbling in the darkness. And then they saw the miracle of God’s divine intervention, and their lives were changed for eternity. What an honor and a privilege to be a part of God’s miracle.

So maybe my friend was asking the right question after all.  Except instead of standing and angrily shaking a fist while we shout it, we should be on our knees, face down on the floor and whispering.

Why me?