"What?" not "Why?"

My husband is a deep thinker.  That is one of the many things I love about him, since I can think myself in circles pretty quickly.  Today, he copied me on an email he sent to an acquaintance who recently inquired about the state of our business.  I suppose the "acquaintance" would actually qualify as a "friend," since he has been praying for us.  Acquaintances say they'll pray; friends really do.

Anyway, Keith shared a little bit about where we're at.  He has a knack for being completely honest and yet not negative--a combination that still eludes me sometimes.  Something he wrote near the end of his message grabbed me.  "Life can be tough, but God is still good. I’m learning to stop asking the 'why' question and instead ask 'what is the purpose' of this situation."  In the past, we've wasted a lot of time and mental energy trying to analyze the "why?" of difficult seasons.  It's really an irrelevant question, and we probably wouldn't feel any better if we knew the answer to it. 

The more important thing to process is the lesson behind the challenge.  What is God teaching us?  What character qualities is He working in us?  What thought patterns are being exposed?  What is it that we need to know before we go any further?  If we get stuck on the "why," and never get around to figuring out the "what".....well, we know from experience that we just go around again until we finally get it.  God is infinitely creative and resourceful when it comes to arranging circumstances in such a way that we learn what He intends to teach us, even if it's on the third time around the same issue!

In the moment, there's a whole lot we don't understand.  The valley is pretty foggy, and we don't have a map...it's slow going, this one-foot-in-front-of-the-other progress...but we are not alone.  So we fight hard and hold fast, trying not to lose sight of the deeper purpose behind it all.