Why?

We recently received an e-mail that had a wonderful message. I thought I would share it with you and leave a few thoughts of my own. The e-mail was as follows:


The Ant and the Contact Lens: A TRUE STORY

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens.

'Great', she thought. 'Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.' She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.

She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth..'

She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.'

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?'

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, 'Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You.'

I think it would do all of us some good to say, 'God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will.'

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Yes, I do love GOD. He is my source of existence and my Savior. He keeps me functioning each and every day. Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him....I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

Recently, I had been having trouble helping someone I know. This person had been hanging out around me for a while but I could see no change in them. I constantly tried to be an example, and pray for them, and tell them about the Bible; yet they stayed the same. It was a sad disappointment being around them and thinking I was no influence or help to them. I didn’t know why God had placed this person near me if they didn’t want to hear the truth and they didn’t want to change.

Another situation like this comes to mind from when I was about 11. I was taking ballet and there was another girl in the class who really liked me. I enjoyed talking to her and telling her about Jesus Christ, and she was extremely interested in what I had to say about Jesus and the Bible. She was Catholic and hadn’t heard any other side or view of the Bible. The more I told her about God’s Son and His word, the more her interest grew, the more questions she asked, and the more time she spent around me. Then one day after class was over, she came to me and asked me if she could be really forgiven and have Jesus in her heart too. To my severe disappointment, her very upset father came up to us and very quickly told her it was time to go and they left. During my ride home I wasn’t completely hopeless, thinking that next week I could tell her about how to be forgiven and become a Christian. I prayed that God would give me the chance to tell her next week because classes were ending that week and it would most likely be the last time I saw her. At class, I went right up to her and she was the first one to speak. She spoke in a sad and quiet voice and told me her father told her not to talk to me about Christianity, that they were Catholics and that what I believed was wrong. She didn’t talk to me any more that day. When we got home I was overcome. She had been the first person that I had really witnessed to. I remember saying, “Why, God? Why did you place me here if it was going to end with nothing, no fruit?” I knew it wasn’t right to ask God why, I knew He would always know best, but the child in me still wanted to know, “Why?”

And still in the present time I struggle with this desire to know why. Doing foster care is a challenge, and when we have had a child in our home for a long period of time (sometimes even longer than the biological parents have had them) and then we get the news that they are to return to their parents, I feel the doubtful question return. Why are they going home to a place that is not nearly so safe as our home, a place that doesn’t have You as the foundation when our home does, a place that appears not to love them as we love them? Why?

Each time I ask that question, I am showing a lack of faith in God. He knows what He is doing, He is in ultimate control. The person who had been hanging around me is now growing more like Christ and I have actually heard them say, “I just want to do what Jesus would do.” I spoke with my mom about the girl in ballet and she encouraged me, telling me although she had not accepted Christ as her LORD, it is ultimately up to her and the God, not her dad and not me. I now see that I may have planted a seed of truth that will remain and the LORD will use someone else to water the seed, even though I may never see how I might have been used to make a difference. In the case of foster care, because they had been with us I now pray for them often and we have told them all, whether they understood it or not, that Jesus loves them and is always there with them. God may have put them in our family so that we could be an example of Him to their parents, or they may have been placed with us just so that the children will always have our family’s prayers with them. Just like the ant from the comic strip, we don’t always know why we bear a certain burden, but our God and Father is sovereign and He has a plan. Whether we see it or not, He is working through us (often in spite of us) and we can be assured that He has a plan. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

We need to be willing to serve the LORD no matter what. If we do know why or if we don’t, we should still be willing to give our all. Isn’t that what our LORD did for us? Galations 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." He gave His all and we didn’t even deserve it. We cannot even comprehend what an awesome and amazing gift was given to us, and yet we ask why! I fall short everyday, like all of mankind. Job was wise when he said in Job 2:10, “…Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?…” How many times have we felt we did not deserve so much pain or misfortune without really thinking about all the good we have had that we did not deserve. Why don’t we say “I do not deserve this, why me?” about the raise our boss gives us, or the new pet we get, or even our family, or the roof over our head, or the life that we are still living today! I know we all have fallen short. We say "I don't deserve this pain!" or "I shouldn't have to do this extra work, it's my sister's job!" While writing this post, the LORD has been touching and convicting me. I truly desire to be grateful for all that I have, including the trials. Just as Romans 5:3 says, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance.” In the hard times, we should still be “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer” (Romans 12:12) because we know that we can always trust that the God who formed the universe and everything in it is always in control. We do not deserve Him and yet He has given us more than we can ever pay back. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. (Ephesians 6:24)


~Momo

I really like this song and I think it has a great message which goes along with this post: http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=b181d059a117f02fbc9e