Why Me, God?

When troubles descend, people have long asked, "Why Me?" or "Why Me, God?"

The answers to this question range from the theological, to the compassionate, to the philosophical, to the comic -- and sometimes humor is actually a great help in surviving bad times.

Consider the highly varied points of view in these quotes on the question, "Why Me?"

If I were to say, "God, why me?" about the bad things,
then I should have said, "God, why me?"
about the good things that happened in my life.
- Arthur Ashe

God will never give you anything you can't handle,
so don't stress.
- Kelly Clarkson

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish he didn't trust me so much.
- Mother Teresa

Life is a succession of lessons
which must be lived to be understood.
- Helen Keller

Why has God given me such magnificent talent?
It is a curse as well as a great blessing.
- Albrecht Durer

"Why me?" That is the soldier's first question,
asked each morning as the patrols go out
and each evening as the night settles around the foxholes.
- William Broyles Jr.

Why does anything ever happen?
Some things happen and some don't.
- Kid Rock

Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask "Why me?"
Then a voice answers "Nothing personal,
your name just happened to come up. -
- Charlie Brown, in Charles M. Schulz' cartoon Peanuts

God is in all men, but all men are not in God;
that is why we suffer.
- Ramakrishna

It is no use to grumble and complain;
It's just as cheap and easy to rejoice;
When God sorts out the weather and sends rain
- Why, rain's my choice.
- James Whitcomb Riley

I think wholeness is God's design for us;
and that often amounts to embracing contradictions.
- Bono

A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu

Man plans, God laughs
- Yiddish Proverb

There are people in the world so hungry,
that God cannot appear to them
except in the form of bread.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

The truly rich are those who enjoy what they have.
- Yiddish Proverb

The wise man in the storm prays God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr (Serenity Prayer)

Is today a day to gather strength from the storm -
a day to to learn life lessons for the next battle?
Or is today a day to sit by the fire
and watch the storm rage outside?
Either way, the storm is just life.
Give thanks for all of Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You don't have the power to make life "fair,"
but you do have the power to make life joyful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Ask Why Not How

Ask "Why" rather than "How." 

Rather than asking, "How can I get a raise," try asking, "Why am I struggling in this company, rather than looking for a job where I will be happier and more fulfilled?" or "Why am I exchanging so much of my life energy in the pursuit of more money?" 

Rather than asking, "How can I get him to like me," try asking, "Why am I struggling to chase after this particular individual, when there are so many wonderful people waiting to be my friend?" 

Rather than asking, "How can I do all the tasks on my to-do list," try asking, "Why have I committed to do all these things? Do they all further my life purpose? Would I be happier and more fulfilled if I crossed most of the tasks off the list, and renegotiated my agreements with those whose demands I am attempting to meet?"

There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask "Why?" 

I dream of things that never were, and ask "Why not?"

 - Robert F. Kennedy paraphrase of George Bernard Shaw 

Science is wonderfully equipped to answer the question "How?" 

but it gets terribly confused when you ask the question "Why?" 

- Erwin Chargaff 

Urgent? Why? - Jonathan Lockwood Huie 

Ask why this task is on your to-do list. 

Consider discarding those items to which you are not truly committed. 

For the tasks which do speak to the longings of your own heart, begin now, today, this moment.

 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie 

 

Further reading: Question Your Questions