Where Were You?

A few weeks ago, I heard a song on the radio that was new to me, but if I didn't live in a cave, I might have realized sooner that it's a popular song. The song, and the perspective of it was so interesting to me. The song is called You Found Me, and it's sung/written by a band called The Fray. In case you haven't heard it, the premise of the song is that this person met God on a street corner. I'm sure the song doesn't have a sound theological basis (well, it's not Baptist, anyway)- this I got from the fact that God was smoking a cigarette. :)

But the part that was so interesting to me was this:

He said, "Ask anything."

"Where were you
When everything was falling apart?"

and

"Why’d you have to wait?
Where were you, where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, You found me

Why’d you have to wait
To find me, to find me?"*

The songwriter has a chance to ask God anything, and He asks, "Where were You?" and "Why didn't You come & intervene sooner?" I think that if most of the people living on this earth could talk to God face-to-face right now, we would have very similar questions for Him. There is so much pain in this world, and it is so hard to understand why God would allow such painful things to happen. So many friends of mine are running across my mind as I type this...

A young woman who wonders how long it will be before she has to kick her alcoholic husband out again to protect her four-year-old daughter; a woman who longs for a child, but has been struggling with infertility for years and is on her last month of her last year of her 'last hope' infertility treatment; a woman still reeling from the unexpected loss of her husband and now dealing with serious health problems herself; a man trying to comfort and support his six children while he watches his wife die of Stage 4 cancer; a woman watching her tiny son's heart be stopped and restarted several times a day and wondering how long this can go on; a friend grieving two miscarriages in the last two years and struggling with fear when it comes to 'trying again'; a woman begging God to turn her adult son's heart around as he faces DUI & drug charges; a young family torn apart by unfaithfulness and divorce...I could literally go on and on for hours, listing the painful circumstances that those I know are surrounded with.

And if I could talk to God, I do believe that this would be my first question: Why, Lord?? And, as I was reminded by Beth's post earlier this week, "Why am I so blessed?"It should be enough to remember that God does have a perfect plan. We cannot always see what He is doing. But He promises us that He does have a plan, and someday He will weave all of this messy pain into something beautiful and good in our lives.** And I suppose that's where faith and trust come in.

Thank You, Lord, that I don't have to stay in this hopeless, depressing place, dwelling on the 'why' or on all of the pain. Thank You that I can choose to leave the 'why' up to You, and turn instead to the 'what', as in "What can I do to make a difference in others' lives today, Lord?"


If YOU could ask God one question, what would it be???



*excerpts from You Found Me
By Isaac Slade/Joe King/The Fray

** Romans 8:28