Do you ever wonder why your car runs out of gas at the most inopportune time? Or why it costs more to dry a load of laundry than is does to do the wash? I guess it boils down to the whole “why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways” nonsense. I could banter back and forth with someone for hours asking “why” questions, but where would that lead us?

However, “why” is a word I have found myself using a lot lately. “Why am I at my current job?” “Why did that have to happen to my family?” “Why didn’t that happen? The cards seems to line up perfectly.” And yet I realized that the underlying question to all of my questions was, “Why God?”. You see, I found myself questioning God.

Have you ever babysat for a little kid who loves to talk and ask questions? As a pediatric physical therapist, I have the opportunity to experience some pretty interesting conversations with kids of all ages. There are times I am constantly laughing, while other times I am frustrated or heartbroken. And then there are those amusing times when a child suddenly thinks he/she is in charge. They come marching back to the gym and start rattling off a list of activities or exercises that they are going to do that day. It is then that I proceed to tell them that I have a different plan and that they will have to wait and see what it is. The “why” questions then begin to fly out of their mouths. And I stand there with a smile on my face, explaining to them as simply as possible what the next immediate step or exercise is. Their little immature minds would not begin to understand that the exercise in question would help strengthen their quadriceps eccentrically in order to facilitate descent when negotiating the stairs.

In the same way, I think God stands there quietly, smiling at us as He reveals one step at a time in the plan he has for us. We can barrage Him with “why” questions like I have been doing, or we can simply follow the next step and “complete the exercise”. God knows our finite minds cannot handle the explanations to the “why” questions and needs us to just trust Him.

In my job, I have developed great relationships with the kids I treat. And they slowly begin to trust me. I hope that one day they realize that the silly little exercises they didn’t want to do helped them get to where they are today. And as for me? Let’s just say I’m learning to ask far fewer questions.