Sermon Central
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For All The Days That End In Why
Contributed by Johnny Creasong on Nov 5, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Life is not meant to be understood, any more than God can be fully understood. But for all the days that end in “WHY?”, GOD IS GOOD!
For All the Days that End in Why?
Let’s begin today with
A short quiz:
It consists of 4 questions and will tell you whether you are qualified to be a professional manager. The questions are NOT difficult.
1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
The correct answer is:
OPEN THE REFRIGERATOR, PUT IN THE GIRAFFE, AND CLOSE THE DOOR.
This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.
2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?
Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the
refrigerator? Wrong Answer!
Correct Answer:
OPEN THE REFRIGERATOR, TAKE OUT THE GIRAFFE,
PUT IN THE ELEPHANT AND CLOSE THE DOOR.
This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.
3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference.
All the animals attend...except one.
Which animal does not attend?
Correct Answer:
THE ELEPHANT.
The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there. This tests your memory.
Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.
4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?
Correct Answer:
YOU JUMP INTO THE RIVER AND SWIM ACROSS.
Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.
According to Anderson Consulting World-wide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many pre-schoolers got several correct answers.
Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four-year-old.
Today we are going to delve into why so many days end in “why” and what should we do when “why” fills our days and our minds.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?
(NIV)
We enter this life questioning, “Why?”
Why did I have to leave the comfortable place I was living? Why are they shining bright lights in my eyes? Why am I being poked and prodded, rubbed and wrapped up?
Why do people talk to me with unintelligible language? Why is it that every time I get this diaper warm they replace it?
We are born with a burning desire to know the “whys” of life? Why do birds and butterflies fly when I cannot?
The why question continues through our school years. Did you ever wonder why you had to learn math?
Does anyone have a compelling response to the penetrating question: “Why do we observe daylight savings time?”
Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Why do I have to endure more of it than others?
We surround our lives with “WHY”.
In case you haven’t noticed, every day ends in “y”! I’ve even known many days that ended in “why”, haven’t you?
Perhaps you are one of those who gets an email, promising that if you’ll just send it to ten people, you’ll receive a miracle by this time tomorrow! Like this guy…
He’s still waiting for a miracle, an answer!
IS GOD REQUIRED TO ANSWER
OUR “WHY” QUESTIONS?
A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don’t believe that God exists."
"Why do you say that?" asked the customer.
"Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t
exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people?
Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving a God who would allow all of these things."
The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he
didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.
The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist."
"How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!"
"No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."
