You ever sit back and ask, “Why me?” Sure you do. Everybody does. You just finish washing your nice new car and the kind flock above you shows you where you missed a spot…. why me? You’re late for a meeting, so naturally the speed limit is optional, right? The flashing lights behind you say differently…. why me? You’re in the middle of the mall, ton of people around, you drop your keys and as you bend to get them you hear that wonderful sound of fabric parting and a nice new breeze makes its way in your trousers….. why me?
Sure we ask that question a lot. However, the pattens seems to show up primarilly in unfortunate situations. How often do we bring this into a positive light? It would seem that the majority of us don’t often think about this when something good happens. We assume that since we’ve had such a long run of bad luck that we are due for something good. We get all green lights on the way to work. We get a nice parking spot at the grocery store. You get a raise. Whatever the circumstance, whenever something good happens to us, we rarely seem to ask why.
Well, this is something that I’ve been asking myself for the past few months and it is in no way a bad situation. Most of you reading this probably already know this, but for the few that don’t allow me to recap the past few months. In late July, a friend of mine asked me if I’d be interested in helping her possibly lead a short term mission trip this coming summer through an organization called Adventures in Missions. We have done trips with them before in the past in our church. I was very interested in this prospect, so I jumped on their website to see what kind of trips they were running in the summer.
As I ran down the list of trips, there were places all over the world that seemed somewhat interesting but nothing really stuck out to me. At the bottom of the list was a trip called “The World Race.” I was looking at it and thought, well this is kind of neat, but still wasn’t sold on anything. Right below the link to that was “The World Race – Media Team.” This caught my eye right away, being as I have had a strong desire for a while to get involved in some type of video ministry overseas. So I clicked on it, read the bio of what the trip was and instantly I knew right away that this was the path that God had laid before me. I talked to my parents about it that night and applied the very next day.
Within a week I had a phone interview, and shortly after that I was accepted to the trip. Within the course of just a few weeks, my life made a complete direction change. A few weeks after that I flew down to Georgia for 2 weeks of training where I met the people I will be spending the next year of my life with.
This entire process was such a leap of faith because all along I really had no idea what I was doing or what to really expect from all of this. All I knew was this is what the Lord had been calling me to do for a long time and the door finally opened and I had to run through it as fast as I could before it closed. The task that lies before me: For the next year, I will be traveling with about 60 missionaries all over the world, ministering in about 14-15 different countries, making one whole lap around the globe. I have been put on the “media team” which is basically a sort of documentary crew, that in addition to ministering some to the other countries, is responsible for getting the message of what’s going on in this trip back to the people here in the states. We are the eyes and the ears of everything that is going on, and it is our responsibility to communicate the message of God moving all over the world to the people here who would otherwise never know about it.
So here I am, 2 months away from embarking on this year long expadition around the world, and I’m still asking…. why me? Why, of all the people in the world, has the Lord chosen me for this task. There are easily more qualified people technically, spiritually, mentally, physically. I am your average joe, never even finished college, was working as a cook for the past year right until God called me to do this.
Why me? I often think about all the people in the Bible that had to of thought of the same thing. As He called Moses to free His people, David to become King, the disciples to walk with Jesus. How many times along their journey would they have asked, why me Lord? This is so big, why in the world would you pick me to do this?
I think if they were to ask God, He would respond the same way He would if I were to ask Him this. Simply, “I picked your because I wanted to pick you. I created you for this very reason. So that through you, and your actions, I will be glorified among the nations. I picked you because I have given you exactly what you need to do this. Nobody else could do it like you, because I didn’t pick them to do it. I picked you.”
Wow. To think that the Lord of ALL Creation would use me to reveal Himself to others. Not only is it a great responsibility, but one of the highest honors we could ever receive. The task is huge, and the road is long, and while it still boggles my mind…. why me? It’s simply because God chose me. That’s why.
