Why me?
It’s a question I have asked a lot in my life.
Sometimes, the question is in response to the hard things.
Sometimes, the question beckons a different type of answer. Too many times in my life, I have felt like I needed to know the answer because the answer held the secret to all my security.
Why do you like me?
The voice of a 4th grade Debbie asks her admirer.
The answer speaks value to my little blonde self. Because I’m pretty. Or smart. Or fun. These become the critical components of likability. These are the answers I need to know…because I need to know how to do more/be more of these characteristics so more people will like me.
Why do you want to date me?
This is the voice of high school Debbie. I know now that puberty has changed me and looks only go so far. Because you love the Lord. Because you’re the type of girl I would want to marry. Because you have faith. My legalistic heart checks these off the list. Do more things like this, and more people will like you.
Why me?
It’s a question I have asked a lot in my life. Sometimes audibly. Sometimes in the deepest places of my heart. It’s a question that points to my insecurities, my fears, and my worries. It’s a question that’s hidden motive is more about wondering if I’m actually enough or how much the person in front of me really wants me.
I had the privilege of getting to stare at this painting in the chapel of Gordon-Conwell’s Charlotte campus the other morning.
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| The Parable of the Sower, at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. Painted by artist Gerald Steinmeyer. |
As I stared, this haunted question of my past resurfaced again.
Why me, Lord?
Because as I gazed at everything going on in this painting– the one thing that captivated me most about it is that Jesus is coming for me. Out of His world and into mine. Coming, because of a great love. The Greatest Love.
Why do you love me?
This is the pleading voice of 34-year-old Debbie who often seems to think she has life figured out. But sometimes, in the deepest places of her heart…she knows the truth. She knows that she is weak and broken. She knows that she is tired and desperate. She knows that she is not enough.
The answer to this question feels weighty.
But the answer to this question is also simple.
Because I do.
There’s this part of my soul that wants the Lord to affirm why He loves me. To commend my faithfulness, my willingness, my obedience. To lift up my efforts to be a “good” Christian, to be one in which He is well-pleased.
But in the quiet moments of this chapel, the Lord reminds me that none of that actually matters. He loves me the same, no matter what I do or don’t do. No matter what I look like or how I dress. Even when I say the wrong thing at the wrong time or when I play my part perfectly. I cannot earn it.
The Lord doesn’t give me the answer I hope for, but His answer is better. It always is it.
It’s an answer that simultaneously puts me in my place while also restoring my identity in Him. He will not give me the false praises and accolades that we so often seek from men. But He will remind me that He loves me because I am His. He will remind me that that is enough.
He has come for me.
I don’t have to question it.
I don’t have to even understand it.
He loves me.
I just get to live in the certainty of that.
The certainty of knowing that while I was a sinner, Jesus Christ came to save me. Through nothing that I have done, I am His.
It truly is amazing grace.
That saved a wretch like me…
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