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Why > What

Often times we only see what people do because we aren't patient enough to hear or find out the reason why they did it.  We see it when politicians vote a certain way, when families make difficult choices that seem 'wrong' to us, and when people make life altering decisions that we just don't get.  But sometimes the "what" is actually less important than the "why."

You may have a family member who moves away from you and takes their immediate family with them.  You are now placed at a great distance from your brother, sister, nieces, nephews, or whoever moved away.  The WHAT of that hurts.  But we must be patient to hear the WHY.  Maybe they feared losing a job, or found a better one.  Maybe a child was being bullied, or they moved for an educational or some other purpose.  The WHY matters a great deal before you get upset simply over the WHAT.

In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Iconium when they learned of a plot against them to be stoned.  They fled there and went to Lystra where they continued preaching.  Paul even healed a crippled man while there.  The people of Lystra then began to praise Paul and Barnabas as gods.  But the apostles stopped them and rebuked the people for it.  If we put ourselves in Paul and Barnabas' shoes, the WHAT of that story is probably not how we would have responded.  They had nearly been attacked and killed for preaching and now were being praised for their preaching and healing but turned down the accolades. 

WHY?  Because they knew there was nothing special about them.  They had something greater in store for the people.  In an effort to stop the people's idolatry, Paul said, "Men, why are you doing these things?  We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them" - Acts 14:15.  Paul and Barnabas knew that the people needed God, not them, and that's who they were pointing them to.

For Christians, we don't always get the WHATs right.  We break the rules, fall short, and come up empty sometimes in our pursuits.  But we keep going, we keep praying, we keep trying - because while we may not always get the WHATs right, if you're doing your best to serve the Lord, you got the WHY dead on.

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