Why Me????

You know, I'm often asked why God let my health fail. I even have had friends express that it's "not fair" because I I was such an "active Christian" or something similar. And I'd be lying if I said I never wondered that myself. I know many have found themselves in very hard situations...like a cheating spouse or a job loss leading to a home foreclosure. But, there's one thing I'm learning..."why?" is the wrong question because it implies that we see things from the perspective of an all wise God...which, of course, we don't. Consider the Apostle Paul...writer of many New Testament books and arguably one of the greatest of Christians. He asked the Lord 3 times to remove a serious physical problem; as we all know, the answer was "No" every time, God explaining that His strength would be seen through this problem of Paul's. But I want to point out another time God put Paul in an undeserved difficult time...the time he and Silas visited Phillipi. They were greeted by a demon-possessed fortune teller who openly mocked them. They helped her by casting the demon out of her which infuriated her owners due to lost income. So what happened? Paul and Silas were thrown in a Roman dungeon after they were beaten. A Roman dungeon was a vile, stinking place where they were chained together and their only position was one of sitting on a filthy floor. No care taken of their open wounds; no food or water; no way to notify anyone...all told a VERY unfair response to their kindness toward a pitiful woman. I mean, WHAT WAS GOD THINKING??? I know I would have concluded God didn't care and curled-up into a pity-party. But not those two...they SANG praises to God!!!!! The result! God sent an earthquake that broke their restraints and opened every cell door!!! But no prisoner chose to flee...in fact, the frantic jailer was reassured by Paul that none had escaped. We then are told that all the prisoners were converted, the jailer took them to his home, dressed their wounds and he and his family were all converted. Even the town administrator apologized to them!! And so the "Church at Phillipi" was begun...the only church that Paul, years later in a letter to that growing church (the book of Phillipians), had nothing but praise for!! My, my what an awful thing God "did" to Paul and Silas!! You see, the book of Isaiah tells us that God's ways are NOT our ways; His ways are too high for us to understand. In fact, I'm pretty sure Paul and Silas had no clue what God was doing...they just chose to trust Him and praise HIm during an undeserved hard time! What about it? Can you trust God when He is bringing hard, undeserved circumstances into your life?? No telling what He has in mind...we just have to TRUST HIM not understand Him!