Why not me?

Do you ever catch yourself praying that you can be spared of a certain peril or suffering? When you do this, do you think of the other people it could effect and who else could instead receive that peril or suffering? “Please don’t let that happen to me, Lord.”

Last year in a class, my professor, a priest, offered: A woman once observed that when someone is about to die they always cry “Why me? Why me?” She thought, “Why not me? I am no better than everybody else.”

I truly admire my friend Carrie for the suffering she is enduring now. Her faith has not appeared to waiver at all. I am not saying she hasn’t questioned. Mother Theresa and even Christ did that. But she knows that what she is enduring will make her stronger and allow for her to be a role model for others. And I am already noticing her become that role model.

Christ willingly accepted suffering for our sake, even though he first asked God to let the cup pass. But he knew that it had to be done so he went along with it. Yet so often we want to avoid as much suffering as possible. After all, that is what our culture tells us to do. “If Jesus is so great and loves us so much, then shouldn’t he make our life easier?”

To that I ask: “If Christ is so great, why are you not eager to join him in everlasting life?” Remember, like Christ, you must first die to this world so that you may have life in the next!