Why is this happening to me?

^” Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul.” (Acts 27:23)

In the midst of some crisis, have you ever said wondered, “Why is this happening to me?” I know I have. Those kinds of statements are usually uttered when in a place of confusion, pain, sickness, betrayal, fear, or loss. In other words, times of weakness when things aren’t going my way.

I remember this vividly when I was in seminary. I had given up my whole life to follow God’s call into ministry. I had been longing to go for years and my chance finally came. My wife and I (as well as our mature and wise counselors, friends and church elders) knew clearly that God had called us and sent us at that time. And within a span of weeks that stretched into months, everything seemed to fall apart. My father died. We moved from the warm South to the coldness of a collapsed steel mill town near Pittsburgh, PA (culture shock!). The house we rented caused us to become terribly sick so we had to move again. I had to take Koine/Biblical Greek (a rather difficult language to learn under the best of circumstances) and 4 other equally strenuous courses.  Our second house flooded (destroying all of our pictures and keepsakes from our grandparents) and we had to move a 3^rd time. Then the winter ice and cold and gloom set in and wouldn’t stop. I was miserable. I found myself in the cold, barren basement of our 3^rd house late one night and I got honest with God…. I cried out, “Why is this happening to me?” And then the next question tumbled forth, “If you really love me, wouldn’t you treat me better than this?”

And it was in the dark aloneness of the night that the Lord comforted me by giving me a revelation that he was with me and that he loves me. He showed me the cross. Not the pretty gold cross that we process behind in church, but the bloody cross of Jesus Christ. And he said to me, “On that day in space and time, my love for you was forever demonstrated.”  And he said, “I am with you.” And that was enough for me. Nothing externally changed in my life. It was still winter outside. And the next 2 ½ years were filled with trial and difficulty. But inside me, a new confidence arose that assured me that we would make it through the storm.

In Acts 27, the Lord was with Paul in the storm. Notice that he didn’t remove Paul from the storm; he didn’t deliver him from the circumstances around him. Instead, he comforted him and assured him that he would survive the storm.  So it is with our lives. The Lord does not promise deliverance from every storm of life. But the Lord will be with us in the storm.  He has promised, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”