Why Not Me?

Why not me? I would venture to say that not many people have heard this phrase, “Why not me?” Many times we hear people say, “Why me?”  You will hear this in a multitude of situations. You just got pulled over for speeding and say, “Why me?” How about the star athlete that is probably going to get a scholarship? They break their arm and ask, “why me?”  You show up to work Monday morning only to find out that your position has been eliminated due to budget cuts. On the way home you are wondering how you are going to pay your bills, how you’re going to put food on the table, and how you are ever going to find another job in this economy. You cry out, “Why me?”

Of course, I do not have the answers to all of these questions. I only want to pose a different outlook for you. In this type of situation when you find yourself asking “Why me?” consider changing the question to “WHY NOT ME?”  When you change the question, you change your outlook and you begin to think differently. Your outlook will be more positive and optimistic instead of a negative pessimistic look. It often gets you away from depression and sympathetic perspectives.

Let’s take a deeper dive into one of the situations mentioned above and see how it actually looks to ask, “Why me?” versus “Why not me?”  You are the star athlete and the scouts keep pouring in to see how talented you are. The next thing you know you are in the hospital getting a stainless steel pin put in your arm from the break you suffered in practice. There go the scouts and all of the potential scholarships you were bound to get. You can’t help to question, “Why me?”  You mope around for the next few weeks just pondering “Why me?”  You ask your friends “Why me?”  And of course they have no answers. You start to get lethargic and gain a few pounds. Now you start breathing hard when you try to get up a flight of stairs. As time goes on you even begin to wonder how you were ever a start athlete.

Looking at the “Why not me?” approach, you come home from the hospital and start wondering “Why not me?”  You consider that maybe this incident is to make you a stronger person. You think that if it would have happened to one of your team-mates maybe they wouldn’t be able to overcome this hurdle. So, yeah, why not me?  You know it will help you learn perseverance and strengthen your work ethic.  You wonder if this accident is for you to show the scouts how strong you am and that your work ethic is something to be commended. You start getting stronger and pushing through the pain in rehab all because of your “Why not me?” perspective.

I can’t help but to believe that Bethany Hamilton, one arm surfer, has this type of outlook. I am convinced that this outlook helped her become a champion after she lost her arm in a shark attack. How about Joseph as told in the book of Exodus? I bet he had the attitude “Why not me?” Do you really think that he could have survived the hatred and betrayal of his brothers without a “Why not me” attitude?

It all starts with your attitude and I suggest you try “Why not me?”

A Little Mustard

It has taken me quite a while me to completely grasp the concept that faith of a mustard seed can move mountains.  I am convinced, for me, that faith of a mustard seed will move mountains. What confuses me is why I keep having such little faith. I can look in every direction and see God’s grace and the blessings that I have been given, but yet I still doubt.

Since I have started this new venture of writing and speaking, I have had many doors open for me. A speaking opportunity at CFLC, support from families and friends, help with editing and running my blog, etc. I recently had a friend look into a speaking opportunity for me. She called and told me about the opportunity. It began as an opportunity to speak for a high school coach that leads a group for Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He suggested the idea that I could be the commencement speaker for the local high school and he would begin to look into it. As she told me of this opportunity I became excited about it. As soon as I hung up the phone after our conversation, I had the thought that it won’t happen. I mean, how I can be a commencement speaker? That is when I became frustrated with myself. I began to wonder why I doubt and have no faith. Look at the doors that have been opened and the opportunities I have been provided already. Quit doubting, mustard seeds can move mountains!!

I know that having faith works. The purpose of this blog post is to get you to understand that Matthew 17:20 is true and will work. It is that our human nature causes us to doubt. I would like to share a short piece that I just discovered on faith and cancer. It is taken from the web site “Cancer Active”. In a top American Cancer Hospital, they ran a check across all their patients looking at factors such as age, diet, lifestyle and so on, to see if there were any factors linked to cancer survival. The results surprised them. Those cancer patients with a God survived 7 times longer. Sometimes you cannot do Clinical Trials - sometimes you just have to believe!

I have shared and will continue to share the many stories that I have that demonstrate that belief and faith work. I have stories from my wrestling days as well as my coaching career. One of my personal stories on how believing can accomplish great things goes back to my high school wrestling career. I started my wrestling career as a sophomore in high school. I knew from the beginning that my goal was to become a state qualifier. I believed it with all of my heart. I worked and believed every day for three years for that to happen. The reason it took so much work and belief is because not many wresters qualify for the state tournament with such little experience. Most wrestlers start in elementary school and at least by middle school.  My work, dedication, and faith paid off my senior year. Now that I look back I know that one of the biggest contributing factors to me being able to qualify for the state tournament was my faith that I could do so. I have come to realize that I may not have been as good as I thought I was at the time.  With so few years of experience, I probably never should have qualified.

I continue to grow in my faith by reading stories about others with great faith and belief. For example, the story about Roger Banister, the first one to break the 4 minute mile, and George Young, the first individual to swim the Catalina Channel when it was thought to be impossible.  These stories as well as some of my other favorites, such as Daniel in the Lions Den, help strengthen my faith.  Your faith and belief can accomplish great things. Believe in yourself and that you can accomplish great things because the faith of a mustard seed can move mountains!!