Why Me? A Question That Echoes Through Life

Why?

In the mouth of a toddler, it becomes the verbal drip of Chinese water torture on a mother’s mind. A father who has lost a daughter to suicide begs for an answer that never comes.

It’s good to ask why.

In 1973, country-western singer Kris Kristofferson was at the height of his career. That’s when he asked the question reflected in a song called Why Me Lord?

Kristofferson had everything his heart desired, but it was also hollow. Psychologists call it the hedonistic treadmill. Seeking pleasure, fame, or recognition will never find satisfaction.

Kristofferson was on that treadmill.

He went to a church service, hoping to find something. In it, the preacher asked, “Is anybody feeling lost?” It hit Kristofferson. He described himself as empty and weighed down by guilt.

It got him thinking.

He heard a song by fellow singer Larry Gatlin named Help Me Lord. He took it a step further.

Reflecting on his life, he wrote:

Why me Lord, what have I ever done

To deserve even one

Of the pleasures I’ve known

Tell me Lord, what did I ever do

That was worth loving you

Or the kindness you’ve shown.

Tell me Lord, if you think there’s a way

I can try to repay

All I’ve taken from you

Maybe Lord, I can show someone else

What I’ve been through myself

On my way back to you.

Lord help me Jesus, I’ve wasted it so

Help me Jesus I know what I am

Now that I know that I’ve need you so

Help me Jesus, my soul’s in your hand.

Why Me, Lord became his biggest hit. It’s not because it is the musings of a gravel-voiced singer. It’s what everyone needs to ponder.

Why do you have what you have? Why are you who you are? Live in the place you live?

I have confronted that same issue.

For many years, I made an annual trek to Managua, Nicaragua where our church fed poor children a hot breakfast. The days were long, the water not suitable to drink, and the beds were lumpy. I walked through neighborhoods with sewer water running down the streets. Families lived in tin shacks made from the refuse from the dump, erected over bare earth with an open fire for their only heat and cooking. Poverty showed its ugliest face.

After a week of that, I would board a United Airlines flight back to the United States. My mind snapped to the same issue somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico. Why is it that I live in the United States? Why do I have cars that run, live in a house that keeps me comfortable, and enjoy a family that I love?

It’s the question again. Why?

Materialists and secularists will give vague and unsatisfying explanations. It’s fate. It’s because America is a capitalistic company that rewards hard work. Or, I am lucky

But again, why? Why am I in a country like that or given circumstances that differ so much from the rest of the world?

In a world in which most of us have everything we need, we want more.

Materialists and secularists offer empty and vague responses. It’s fate. You are successful due to the American system of capitalism. Or, you’re lucky.

That’s when I retreat to Kristofferson. It’s not politics, the aligned planets, or fortune. It comes because God has blessed me.

Why me? Why me more than others? I have no answer to that question, only to the first one, “Why me Lord?”

In Deuteronomy 7, God perches Israel on the banks of the Jordan, ready to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. They will live in houses they did not build and eat from vineyards they did not plant.

They may ask the question, “Why?” And they would give human answers. We are better than others, a superior people with superior morals. We deserve it.

It’s because of our might. They would rake Palestine with conquests.

Yet, Moses lectures them not to take credit. He asks the question, “Why us Lord?”

His answer is simple.

“but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:8, ESV)

God cares and gives grace to the undeserving. It’s God, not me that creates the condition of my life.

I can only reflect on the question with gratitude. If not for God, who knows where any of us would be?

Stop and ask yourself, “Why me, Lord?” It will enrich your life.