Moving Past the Question “Why?”

Have you ever spent much time around a two year old? Conversations with my nephew are quite predictable.

“Eli, time to put clothes on.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s morning.”
“Why?”
“Because the sun came up.”
“Why?”
“Because every 24 hours the earth makes a full rotation on its axis, allowing a certain number of daylight hours.”
“But, why?”

The age where we question “why” is a vital part of growing up. It is a time when natural inquisitiveness leads us to a place of understanding how the world works around us.

However, I think we’d all agree that questions of “why” eventually must stop. Every line cannot continue to be pushed. At a certain point a child must understand that  you don’t always have to know why.  (I think this is the place where exasperated parents exclaim, “Because I said so!” )

In my walk with God there were very real times of learning and growing when I have spent time asking, “Why, God? Why is this happening? Why are you allowing this?” but as I’ve grown and matured in my faith, there has been a definite switch. My questions of “why” have been left behind and I’ve learned to simply trust in the Father who knows all and loves all.

There are times, of course, when the questions are answered. When God speaks quiet and soft, this is the consequence of a poor decision or this is a chance for you to know Me more or this will help guide you to the place where I will use you. There have been so many answers He’s offered me through the years, so many times where He has patiently and lovingly responded to my quizzing.

But sometimes we do not get to know “why” and faith means that we must trust in what we do not see or understand. 

There are no satisfactory answers, after all, to death and loss and pain. Not here on earth. So we must leave that place of perpetual childlike questioning and choose to trust that we are held tight in the Father’s hands, never beyond His reach or out of His sight.

There is a time when we must choose to believe, without the answers, without the tangible response. Times when “trust me” must be enough. 

I believe that God, who desires us to grow in grace and maturity, will bring us each to a place of testing. A place of questions with no answers. And He will open the doors for us to choose, from right there, who we will follow. And I believe that place is where maturity in Christ is earned. 

“I have to learn to love from this spot, today. I have to learn to trust, even when His will seems frightening or untrustworthy. I have to follow Him, even when it feels like I am walking into emptiness. It is right here, right today, that I must decide where my faith is. If serving God does not work from right here, in the middle of my pain and mourning, it won’t work from anywhere.” – Pain Redeemed