Why ask "why"? - Deovtion for 7/30/07

Why ask “why”? – Devotion for 7/30/07

Recently someone sent me a list called “why ask why,” and this list included a bunch of silly questions. I know some of the things on the list come from Seinfeld, but here are a few examples:

• Why are they called apartments, when they're all stuck together?
• Why do banks charge you a "non-sufficient funds fee" on money they already know you don't have?
• Why do people go to Burger King and Order a Double Whopper with a Large French Fry and insist on getting a Diet Coke?
• If the universe is everything, and scientists say that the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into?
• How do "Keep off the grass" signs get where they are?
• What's another word for thesaurus?
• If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success?
• If the funeral procession is at night, do folks drive with their lights off?
• When companies ship styrofoam, what do they pack it in?

And one of my personal favorites:

• Why do they clean a felon's arm with alcohol when preparing for a lethal injection? They don’t want him to get an infection?!?

Some questions just aren’t meant to be answered. Deuteronomy 7:6 speaks about why God chose the people of Israel. “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” The passage goes on to say that they were not selected because of their numbers, for when God chose Abram he didn’t have one descendant. He simply chose them to be His possession.

We truly can not see things as God sees them, but we still try. When things happen in the world, especially bad things, we tend to look for a reason or a purpose and ask “Why?” Part of the faithfulness that God desires from us is the willingness to just try Him without having to have the answers to the “why.” I give my 2 sons vitamins to take each day as a way of making sure that they are receiving the proper nutrients and essential minerals, and I want them to take them without me having to explain that to them every day. When I set a bedtime for them, I want them to go to bed without fighting me or asking “why do I have to go to bed now?” Today, let us place our full faith and trust in God, and not necessarily need to have all the answers to everything.