Why?

I know that I’ve gone down deep on some of the last few posts. If you clicked on kpinion for lightness and laughter today you might be disappointed. I’ve realized that my mind and heart focus on what is going on at the moment and therefore my writing (blogging, whatever) ends up focusing on that also.

Last night I met my bible study gals after what seems like months being apart from them. It is amazing that fellowship with girls whose hearts you hold dear can touch you in such a distinct way.

One of my sweet friends in the group is going through a trial like none other at the moment. In respect of her privacy I will not go into details but know that my heart breaks for her and at the same time I delight to see the hand of God as He works in her life. This woman of faith sat there and told all of us her pain, her struggles, the darkness of the situation and then in the same breath she spoke of how God would receive all the glory. Her heart is broken and yet she praises her Father for the strength He gives, for the mercy He lavishes, and for the grace that she holds so tightly to. That is faith my friends, active, struggling, death-grip faith.

Many of you know of Rebekah. She is a little girl who was introduced to most of us by Steve. This precious angel is fighting a battle with cancer and other diseases and it is ravaging her body. To read the daily battles and struggles of her and her family rip at my heart. But God’s grace is sufficient, and His work is seen both in her victories of healing and in the way that He has brought the body of Christ to its knees together in prayer for this child. Rebekah may not know that she is being used by her Creator to gather His children in communion with Him, but I pray that she knows that people who she’s never met are bowing a knee to Yahweh (Lord, Jehovah), Jehovah-Rapha (the Lord who heals), Jehovah-shammah (The Lord is There), Jehovah-shalom (The Lord is Peace), El Roi (The God Who Sees), Elohim (The Creator), El Elyon (The God Most High), and El Shaddai (The All Sufficient One).

But the question in my title is not to ask why these things are happening. I’ve asked why before and I’ve come to see that God often does not relinquish that answer. Those answers are not promised.

The question I want to ask is: Why are we alive? That was a question in our bible study last night. At first I laughed because it was such a bible study type question. Why are you here? Oh, and I had an answer all ready, a good answer no less, the “right” answer, the one I had been taught to answer, the one that makes me look spiritual, the one that makes me look like I have it all under control. But guess what, I don’t.

If anything, these situations I’m seeing are teaching me that I have nothing under control. Control is not mine to have. Control is something that human beings will NEVER have.

But back to the question. Why are we alive? As I thought about this in those few moments we were discussing it, I took it a step farther. Why are we still alive? If I believe that salvation is true, if I trust that it is His will that I spend eternity with Him, if Christ’s death was to purchase that presence, then why am I still here on earth?

Then it hit me. Why am I alive (or why am I still alive)? Well look beside you. Look around at your family, at your friends, at the people you walk past on the street, at the little girls you hear about on the internet. There’s your answer.

I’m alive because of ____________ (fill in the blank with a name). We are alive because God wants flesh and bones out there on His behalf. Because of the family member that we can love through sickness, because of the shoulder we can offer to a hurting friend, because of the prayer we can offer for a sick child, because of the neighbor we can serve by raking their yard, because of the stranger who is contemplating suicide because no one cares and doesn’t today because we smiled and said hello, because of the children who get to hear about Jesus by sitting in our classes or Sunday schools, because of the changes in my life that so many people have made just because I have known them, because I heard about my Lord from another person, because you heard about the Lord from someone else.

When we put a face on it, when we attach a name, when it is someone we know, or someone we see, or more than that when it is us, it becomes real, it becomes more than a life statement, more than a vision, it becomes living.

This is why we’re here.

Thanks for reading my ramblings today. It is more free flow than organized thought so I’m sorry if it is hard to get through.

Ok readers, I'm going to challenge you here. Comment, say something, be it an "amen" or a "you're stupid". I don't care which, but this is a topic that deserves feedback. Are you in need of someone to be alive for you? Is there someone in your life that fills in your blank in the question? I know I have a lot of silent readers but talk to me, tell me what you think. You are welcome to visit in silence, but I'm a big believer in correspondence so go for it.