How many times in your life have you asked the question “why me?”
I know I have more times than I would like to admit. In one way, this question is naive and in another way it feels like the right question, but in totality it depends when and in what situation you are asking it.
Most often this question is asked during times of suffering, dismay, or disappointment. To be fair to our hearts, it is a very human question but a very small story minded question. What kind of story do you believe you live in? Do you live in a small story that is only about you and the things most important to you or do you believe you live in a larger story, where you are part of an incredible journey that involves something bigger than you? How you answer either of these questions will bring you closer to the answer of “why me?”
If your story is small, than your place in this world is small. But is that what your heart yearns for, to live a seemingly inconsequential life, here for just a short time? That you are here to get the most out of life or to live in such a way that you strive to make life work for you?
If your story is larger, than you leave room for you to play a larger part in something beyond what is right in front of you; and maybe, just maybe, your story is connected with millions of other stories and your life is far more valuable than you could possibly imagine! Doesn’t this possibility make your heart stir and fill with anticipation? The idea that you matter, and you do matter infinitely more than you know or comprehend, is not just a possibility, it is reality.
You matter, you matter greatly. Your life is so important, so valued that God himself decided you were worth giving his life for. Not just dying for, but also suffering for. Jesus came to earth to live the most human of human experiences. He came as a seemingly small part in the story in form of a baby, but his life was much bigger and interwoven into the hearts of all mankind before he appeared in the story. In fact, his life was the largest story of all, and he came to invite you into his story. He came to offer you his life, his heart, his ways, his love, and his freedom. Jesus knows suffering, and the urge to ask “why me?” he knows to the core of his own humanity. He let us into his “why me?” moment while he agonized in the Garden of Gesthemene right before he would endure the worst suffering known to human history as he awaited the beginning of his journey to the cross:
“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” -Matthew 26:39 NIV
Jesus asked “why me?” It is the most human of human questions to ask in the midst of suffering. Take notice though of what Jesus said next: “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus answered his “why me” question by choosing you. The “why me?” answer for Jesus is YOU!!
The next time you ask yourself “why me?”, instead of asking it from a place of a self-focused, small story-centered heart, ask it from a place of being chosen, from a perspective of being worth more than life itself. God himself laid down his life so you could have life, and not just your life but his life to live the fullest way your life could ever be lived. Remember, when Jesus chose you, he chose you in the midst of his deepest agony and yet he never turned from his mission to rescue you. He answered the question “why me?” with the greatest act of sacrifice in history. Why you? Love, with Jesus, it always comes back to love.
Will you take the step towards him and let him answer “why me?” for you or will you continue to live your own way in your own small story, when his offer is life, freedom, healing, and a place in the larger story? He loves you enough to answer “why me?” for you but he also loves you enough to let you answer “why me?” for yourself. What will you choose?
