Why?

W-H-Y. Three little letters that can pull quite a punch.

I used to always need answers. When I say always, I mean ALWAYS. If someone reacted a certain way to a situation, I needed to know why. If something didn’t make sense to me, I was on a mission to answer the incredulous question, why? Any time I have experienced pain, I ask why? I realized that the why question was a reoccurring thing when things weren’t going my way. I rarely asked “why me” when it felt as though the stars were aligning and all was right in my world.

I heard a sermon once where the pastor said something that still seems profound to me. He said, “If you’re willing to take the good without question, then don’t question God’s plan when things seem to go awry.” WOW!

I realized in that moment that the proverbial “Why” just doesn’t matter. I trusted God in the good, I needed to learn to trust in difficult moments.

My family lived in the same time town for 13 years. That town was home for my children, even though my husband nor I were originally from the town, it was all my kids knew as home. Then opportunity seemed to come our way for my husband with his job, which meant that we would have to move away from our town and all of our friends and “framily.” He is a high school football coach and was offered a head coaching job at a school over two hours away from home. We talked with people who we respected greatly for advice about what decision to make. And we prayed about it…A LOT.

Eventually we decided that we were meant to embark on a new journey. We found the perfect home, in just the perfect time. Every moment of the move I felt God’s presence with us. Our experience at our new school was nothing what I had expected. We quickly realized that we were not at our forever school. We did not fit in. I began to ask, why. Why had we left a place we loved, filled with people who loved us to go to a place that we just did not fit in? We were in that area for 3 years and then the opportunity arose for us to move home.

Just as sure as we were about moving away, we were sure about moving home. Again, I saw God’s hand in moving our mountains. It was humbling, exciting, and amazing all at once. My kids were so confused and a little upset. One of the kids asked, “Mom, why did we leave only to come back? Things were great and we went somewhere where it wasn’t great and we struggled, only to return where we came from. What was the purpose? Why did we have to go through that?”

I thought about that sermon. I thought about my own questions of why. And all I could respond was, “The why doesn’t matter.” My child was not impressed with my answer. I had such a feeling of conviction that I still have a year later after moving home…the why doesn’t matter. What does matter is how I answer another question: Were we being obedient? Were we following what God was leading us to do? I can answer that with an emphatic YES! I don’t know why we had to go. I don’t know why we were there for such a short time. I don’t know why we ended back where we started. I don’t know if the journey was for our family or if we affected others. In all of those why questions, the one thing I know is the answer doesn’t matter.

As Christians we are called to follow God’s lead. We are to pray and be still…be patient. (One thing that I struggle with a lot!) For every decision about our journey, we sought God’s voice. And I find unexplainable comfort and satisfaction in that.

The next time the why’s begin to creep in, pause, be still and pray about it. Your answer may be to simply answer the call, because after all, the why doesn’t matter!