Why Me Why – Part 1
I didn’t think I’d use the subtitle from last year’s devotion series again. This past week however it’s been haunting me more than ever. Within a year and a half, I lost Mom, and also 4 of the longest and closest friends I had, all friends of 30 or more years, trusted and close. Mom was a full life, but my buddies were all too young, mid-50s to mid-60s and they all went fast. This past week though saw the most tragic loss as the most dear and gifted daughter of our closest friends died suddenly in a sledding accident. It has a lot of people reeling with questions for which there are no answers.
This devotion series is about various aspects of the loss of a loved one, especially someone so young as our friend’s daughter, or the loss of anything else near and dear like one’s daily abilities, things we all take for granted. I hope somewhere this will help someone as I struggle to understand it all myself. But for the Grace of God it could have been me a hundred times over on that sled. We struggle with Faith: how could any decent God let such things happen? Is there a God? Why did they all have to die so soon? Why do we all suffer so much when we lose our most precious gifts, family, friends, the ability to do simple things? Is there any getting over it? Should there be?
My chosen title evokes questions by design, the punctuation has been withheld to promote variations. Pronounced Why Me? Why?, to no one in particular and at the same time to everyone it has one meaning. Pronounced Why? Me! Why?, it has another. Pronounced as a single word in a low broken tone whymewhy, it has the grief and heartache of a person in distress. As I pondered this, I pronounced the phrase many ways in my head and found many meanings, each with more questions than the last.
I know I certainly can’t answer these questions, and I don’t pretend to understand them myself. It is my hope that somewhere in these devotions someone greater than I will find some comfort in them. My prayer is that none of you ever feels like asking; Why Me Why.
Ron Draper
The two most important days in anyone’s life are the day you’re born, and the day you find out why. (Mark Twain)
I didn’t think I’d use the subtitle from last year’s devotion series again. This past week however it’s been haunting me more than ever. Within a year and a half, I lost Mom, and also 4 of the longest and closest friends I had, all friends of 30 or more years, trusted and close. Mom was a full life, but my buddies were all too young, mid-50s to mid-60s and they all went fast. This past week though saw the most tragic loss as the most dear and gifted daughter of our closest friends died suddenly in a sledding accident. It has a lot of people reeling with questions for which there are no answers.
This devotion series is about various aspects of the loss of a loved one, especially someone so young as our friend’s daughter, or the loss of anything else near and dear like one’s daily abilities, things we all take for granted. I hope somewhere this will help someone as I struggle to understand it all myself. But for the Grace of God it could have been me a hundred times over on that sled. We struggle with Faith: how could any decent God let such things happen? Is there a God? Why did they all have to die so soon? Why do we all suffer so much when we lose our most precious gifts, family, friends, the ability to do simple things? Is there any getting over it? Should there be?
My chosen title evokes questions by design, the punctuation has been withheld to promote variations. Pronounced Why Me? Why?, to no one in particular and at the same time to everyone it has one meaning. Pronounced Why? Me! Why?, it has another. Pronounced as a single word in a low broken tone whymewhy, it has the grief and heartache of a person in distress. As I pondered this, I pronounced the phrase many ways in my head and found many meanings, each with more questions than the last.
I know I certainly can’t answer these questions, and I don’t pretend to understand them myself. It is my hope that somewhere in these devotions someone greater than I will find some comfort in them. My prayer is that none of you ever feels like asking; Why Me Why.
Ron Draper
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