So tell me again...WHY??!!!???

When I see horrible things happening in the world, when I witness struggles other people are facing, and when proverbial doors are slammed in my face, my first reaction is to demand an explanation. ::WHY is this happening? WHY isn’t this working? WHY do you feel that way? WHY did she make that choice? WHY aren’t my efforts being rewarded? WHY does he have to encounter so much hardship? WHY wasn't this disaster prevented?::

Why?! Why!? Why?! Why!?

I remind myself of a two year~old at times. {You know how older toddlers and younger preschoolers are so fixated on questioning? When they keep going and going and pushing and pushing until you're left with something like, "Because God created it that way"? Yeah...that is SO my life.} You would think that with all the two year~olds in my life I would be tired of the word "why"...but I'm not. I want to know. I want to understand.

I have a dear friend who noticed this about me, and after she displayed some {if I may say so myself} puzzling behaviors/choices, she told me,

"Don't search for an explanation for my actions, Leah. There isn't one."

Ha! That's what you THINK! 'Fact is, there's an explanation for everything! And if there isn't one, I will FIND one!! Or CREATE one!!

So..in searching for an explanation, I'm...

10 times out of 10: seeking better understanding, which would lead to greater peace and contentment with regards to life situations and events

and

3 times out of 10: challenging someone/something, hoping that she/he/it will see the folly in her/his/its ways.

Remember my pancake post? God's ways are higher and far more complex and profound than our finite minds can comprehend. Not only does God rarely tell us why, even if He were to explain His reasons, we would rarely understand.

I have to accept that I'm not the answer woman for situations and events in life that don't make sense. I must realize that what I need to know will be revealed to me at the correct time, and if it's not, then it really does not require my knowing!

In Take This Bread, one of my current reads, author Sara Miles states, "Faith for me didn't provide a set of easy answers or certainties: It raised more questions than I was ever comfortable with."

and later..

"Now I understand that questions are at the heart of faith, and that certainties about God can flicker on and off, no matter what you think you know."

While I will continue to seek clarity and pray for wisdom, maybe I need to accept that questions and uncertainties are part of believing, part of being human. Perhaps the lack of answers I encounter shouldn't discourage me, but INSPIRE me to continue growing and learning about God, others, and myself.

After all, inquiring minds want to know! ;-)

"...look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here." ~Ezekiel 40:4