Sometimes it is easier to ask, “Why?”

Sometimes it is easier to ask, “Why?” It is less confusing to ponder the unknown. There seems to be less pain in wondering what could have been. It’s much easier to sift through hypotheticals than to face the gritty, soul-shattering truth of reality.

Don’t be ashamed. It’s our natural response when we are faced with hard times. We have all been there.

“Why was it her time to go? We are so young. We have so many plans, so many ideas, so many dreams. Why now? Why today? Why not in 50 years? Why not a hundred years from now? Why? Why?”

“Why was he taken away when I needed him most? Couldn’t we just have a few more years together?  Why do other kids get to have their Grandpa? Why do other families get to live a normal life?”

Sometimes we can only shudder and ask, “Why?”

“Why? Why do we have to leave the hospital with empty arms and broken bleeding hearts? He was the boy we longed for. The little boy we ached for. Why did he have to be taken before we even met him? Why is holding his tiny precious lifeless body the only moments we will ever have with him? Why do we have to bear this unbelievable pain?”

“Why is the tumor inoperable? Why isn’t there a procedure that can make it go away? Why can’t the doctors perform another surgery? Why are we so helpless and powerless? Why is cancer so nasty and destructive?”

Why?

Why?

Sometimes it is easier to ask, “Why?” Especially when the answers we do have just add to the hollow empty ache already destroying us from the inside out.

So we ask, “Why?” We question everything. We desperately search for answers to the unanswerable. We aimlessly grope for the ability to process the unthinkable.

We ask “Why?” because someone has to shoulder the blame.

But who is to blame?

God? Fate? Coincidence? Karma and all its fictitious unfulfilling promises of revenge?

Someone has to take the blame.

Maybe WE are to blame.

“If I had only…”

“If I had just…”

“What if…”

But all we hear in response is frustration-inducing silence. No answer. No resolution. No page we can flip upside down to find the cleverly hidden  answer. No chance that we can skip to the last chapter and figure out it was indeed the Butler that did it. Nope. This is real life. Just silence and more questions.

So instead we ask, “Why?”

Because it is the easiest thing to do when we have no clue what to do.

It is at these moments we realize how little control we really have over our lives. We like to imagine we sit in the driver’s seat firmly gripping the steering wheel of our life. We smugly brag we have the proverbial “tiger by the tail”. We are self made men and women. We got this. Our destiny is firmly placed in our very capable hands.

Yeah, right. Sure…

So, how about you take the wheel and drive me away from this crushing pain. Create for me a destiny that isn’t pockmarked by tragedy and hopelessness. Tame this monster that is about to devour everything I hold dear and precious in my life.

Then tell me “Why”.

Explain to me “Why”.

Yeah, I didn’t think you could.

It is out of your hands. It is out of my hands.

Then whose hands is it in? Who really knows the “Why?”

The Universe? The Cosmos? Some great nothingness out there decides my fate? Some unknown Force chooses my tomorrow? My pain and comfort lies in the lap of an inexplicable source of pulsing energy that I can neither see nor feel nor ever hope to really understand?

Seriously?

How about some exalted being or entity? Some dude dwelling in the ethos who somehow evolved enough to reach another dimension or another level of consciousness. Can he identify with me and my pain? Does he sit way up there flailing his hands around controlling us like a bunch of Pinocchios on strings? Does he understand? Does he care? Is he even really there?

Doubt it.

Maybe there isn’t a “Why”. Maybe we just exist…and then we don’t. There is no purpose. There are no answers. We just live, laugh a little, hurt a little, hurt a lot and then we are done. After that…Gone. No consequence, no reward. Like the final pages of a Great American Novel. Action, intrigue, romance, tension, a climax, a resolution. Then blank pages. No further explanation necessary. Just “The End.”

Hope not.

No matter, we still ask “Why?”

It is almost as if the desire to know “Why” is built into the fiber of our being. The yearning to know the answers to life’s questions is deeply ingrained into our DNA. We humans have to know. We have to discover. We must. It is what separates us from other mammals.

We ask “Why?”

WHY do we ask “Why?” (See what I did there?)

Because He made us to.

Yes, He with a capital “H”.

Not the “he” that is some life force that we can’t really fathom much less fully explain. Not some unknown “he” that has ascended up from humanity to reach an higher evolved state of consciousness.

But the “He” that created us all. The “He” that spoke and worlds spun into existence. That He.

He made us to ask why because He is our Why. He is the only Why. Nothing else makes sense. Nothing else can explain away our fears. No one, nowhere, no how can come close to fulfilling the “Why” that bores a hole through our heart and soul every day.

We ask “Why” so we can find Him. Kind of like a human homing device seated deep within our psyche. A holy GPS that steers us back to Him in every tragedy, every hurt, every wandering.

Every question can be answered in Him. Every “Why” is satisfied in Who He is.

Sometimes it is easier to ask “Why?” because our “Why” will always lead us to Who.

And the Who is He.

And He is Jesus Christ. (I am pretty sure you already figured that out.)

In this Jesus we find the answers to every “Why?”

Too simplistic and archaic? Too fairy tale and esoteric? Ancient tales and stone age fables?

I would say they have withstood the test of time.

He says: “Prove me now…if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” -Malachi 3:10

Give Him a try. Test if what He says is true. Find out Who He really is. He dares you. Give Him a chance.

And He will turn all of your “Whys?” into Him. And He will be all you need.

Please note I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or lean way off topic.