Rural Hall Moravian Church

From our Pastor, Rev. Dr. Steve Craver:

Why?

I heard about a philosophy final exam which only had one question. Why? Some students wrote page after page in their blue books only to fail the exam. There were two answers: If one wrote “Why not”, they received an A. If they wrote “Because”, they received a B.

Philosophy is very interesting, but its’ flaw is that it comes from people and can therefore end up anywhere. The world is full of philosophies that go all over the map all the way from frivolous to evil.

Theology is different…it begins with God. If that question was asked in a Christian theology course, I would answer “Because God was in Christ”. Jesus Christ should be our “why” in everything.

At our last board meeting, we spent an hour talking about many different “whys”. Why is giving down? Why is attendance soft? People as a rule find it easy to identify problems, but much harder to identify solutions. I once worked for a man who would not allow you to identify a problem unless you could also propose a solution. He said he already had enough problems which he didn’t know how to solve. If, however, you had thought of a solution, he would take time to listen to your identification of the problem.

The problem? We have misplaced our “why”! We may be doing the right thing, but we can’t remember why we do it or we have fallen into the trap of doing unnecessary or unproductive things. We started doing them without determining if it had anything at all to do with God’s saving work in Christ. It burns up our energy so that we have none left to do the important things in life. What parent has not distracted an unhappy child with a shiny bauble to get them to stop crying? Satan knows that trick all too well. In our world, there are baubles galore and they all shine gloriously!

The solution: We need to find our “why” for everything we do and it must be centered in the belief that God was in Christ reconciling the world through him. If Christ compels us to do something, we should do it. If we have another reason for doing something we should let it go. We should become “whyspeople” in the Lord.

Our questions should be: Why was I created? Why should I live one way and not another? Why should I worship? Why should I serve in any capacity? Why should I give? etc…etc…etc. In the next few months, you will have the opportunity to struggle with those questions for your life and our church’s life.

Pastor Steve

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