Why Me? Why Now?! (for Terry)

The pain and the agony of physical discomfort is as inescapable as breathing air. Even that simple, necessary and almost autonomic exercise at times brings excruciating pain to some. We look for joy, peace, exhilaration, and at some points just a little peace. We see pain as abnormal and unwanted. We are grateful for the heart beat and dread the heart attack. We rejoice in the strength of well nourished and properly exercised muscle. We sorrow when age and infirmity atrophy our once admirable physical frame. We say “ Why me , why now? ” We think of the best days of our lives and wonder why so many look forward to what we affectionately refer to as the golden years.

We are partially to blame for our current condition. One of our favorite phrases at this point is “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself when I was younger”.  There is an understanding available to us which allows us to know the impact of what we ingest or participate in.

We have heard it said “You are what you eat” and “As he thinks in his heart so is he”. God our creator designed a perfectly balanced world with a blissfully pain free environment. When the choice to disobey the known and expressed will of Jehovah God was laid before Adam and Eve, they chose sin and the entire creation became unbalanced. Hardship in labor for daily subsistence and pain in childbirth were only the beginning of the consequences. We make similar choices daily.

We awake in pain from the physical activities of the day before. We know there are limits to what we can do and yet in our minds we minimize the consequences. Placing a hand on a hot stove top burner will bring immediate unwanted pain. When it happens we call it an accident. Yet it is a result of the premeditated choice to not be vigilant.

Using a tool or a knife with care results in no pain; without care the result, and the effect can be very unpleasant. The joys of being the fastest, the strongest, the prettiest, or the smartest are what we seek. In our youth, with the availability of the best our minds and bodies have to offer, we excel. Age brings wisdom and time brings lessons wrought in experience.

Few of us are as hasty in our old age as in our youth. Partly because we understand consequences more, partly because we no longer have the same desires and partly because we are not as able as we once were. Adam and Eve knew the consequences of disobedience (sin).

“In the day you eat of it you will die”. Intellectually they knew but experientially they remained ignorant. Having eaten their fill of the forbidden fruit it no longer had the appeal it once did. Being cast out of the garden they were no longer able to access the tree. Is it possible they said “Why me, why now?”

God’s desire was for them to believe Him from the beginning and avoid the consequences. He wanted them to enjoy the things which were good for them and desire only good. He intended for their physical bodies to last for eternity without diminishing. His desire for you is the same. Pain is a teacher in that we learn we do not want it around. We learn the negative consequences of certain activities and choose to avoid them.

The Holy Spirit is a teacher of good things. He directed the minds of men desiring God’s good to write the Bible so we may know the good and right way and walk in it. We know that for those who believe and obey, the pain will not last forever. We cannot choose every circumstance of lives nor the impact of the sins of others. We can however choose both how we deal with our circumstances and make choices to glorify God even in the midst of pain.

When I bite my finger, the nerves God designed there, tell my brain that this activity is a danger to my body and the brain chooses whether to allow the activity and its consequences or to stop the biting. Likewise when I bite into a delicious ripe and juicy fruit, the nerves surrounding the taste buds send that same brain a signal that this is a wonderful activity and the brain chooses either to continue or add other information such as a warning from God.

The pain or pleasure sensations are just the messengers. The consequences of obedience or rejecting God’s Word are the result. “Choose you this day whom you will serve”.

There is a remarkable difference between knowing a thing is right and doing what you know to be right. In all of our doing and knowing there remains this one constant. “God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”.

The pain, the sorrow,

The joy of each brighter tomorrow,

Allows us to know His plan is best,

For He leads us toward eternal rest.

That is rest from pain, resting in Him. Even in the pain we endure in this life, we glorify Him because we trust he has allowed this thing in my life for His good pleasure and for my eternal good.

Sometimes our pain draws us back to the proper relationship with Him that we should have been in all along. Sometimes it is the means to strengthen our conversation and focus on His desires, not ours. Sometimes it is the instantaneous, miraculous dissipating of that pain through the faithful obedient prayers of his children which sees His victory won in your life.

And we will know “Why me, why now?”