I had a teacher one time that told us this story from his college days. He was in a philosophy class and the assignment was to write a ten thousand word essay on the subject to be given to the class. As he was a gifted student he thought it was no big problem. The day of assignment came and the teacher wrote this one word on the chalkboard. WHY, nothing more, nothing less, just WHY. As you can guess there was a collective groan in the class and they were dismissed.

As he told the story, he went in the next day and announced to the teacher that his paper was done. Rather shocked the professor asked to see the rough draft. My teacher announced that he did not need a rough draft, his paper was corrected and finished.

If you ever saw the old TV show, “The Dukes of Hazard” you will remember the narrarator’s voice saying, “Meanwhile, Uncle Jesse…” So, I will leave the rest of this rabbit trail alone for a while and wander down another.

In case you don’t know this yet, I am the son of a preacher. I probably used a hymnal or the back of a pew for a teething ring and never knew anything but church life, and the good and bad side of church folk. I would never want anyone to think that Christians are perfect, just ordinary folks, sinners saved by grace. I will give you just one minor incident to show just how silly people can be. In the town I grew up in there were two churches that each had their own parking lots but shared a common street between them that was also used for parking, depending on who got there first. This developed into a sore point over the years and this is how it was resolved.

I will change the names to protect the guilty. Church “A” had some bumper stickers printed up that read something like, “I love to go to church “A'” and waited for the time to strike. One Sunday all those from church “A” parked elsewhere thus leaving the entire street open for those attending church “B”. While church “B” was in services, those from church “A” went out into the street and applied the “I love church “A”‘” stickers to the church “B” cars and as you can guess, nothing was solved. Why? Good question. I am sure many of the folks who did the “stickering” figured, “Why not!” Those church B folks have been parking in OUR spaces long enough, why not let them have it!

Well, we may never know the answers to the WHY/ WHY NOT question, but I do know that neither God nor His people looked particularly good that day to anyone.

“Well, back to my teacher…” (that was the narrator there). My teacher told his professor that his project was complete and officially turned. As the story went, his professor picked up the folder and opened it to a single page with a two words on it in the center of the page.

Why Not?

Well, the professor was so impressed by the audacity and simplicity of the response, he gave my teacher an A for the paper and the class. Why? you might ask, Why Not!

Whenever God comes along and does something incredible in your life, not always fun but incredible nonetheless, save yourself some time and agony and don’t always ask why? He is in no way obligated to tell us WHY He chooses to run His universe as He does, but He does it very well. In Jeremiah chapter 29:11 the Message Bible puts it this way, “I know what I am doing. I have it all planned out, plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come to me, I’ll listen.” I just wish I could get over my hearing problem.

So another rabbit trail completed. I hope you enjoyed the journey. I wrote this piece before the famous Chain Saw Massacre of the hand. I leave it with whether or not to ask

Why?

Your fellow servant, Tim