Why me?

This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.
Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'

If that sounded profound to you, then it's probably because I stole it from The West Wing. (Episode 32 I believe.)

I have a friend who has a problem, and I don't think she knows it yet. She is going through something that I don't think she fully understands or accepts, and it is hard. I know, because I went through the same thing myself. I have been in the hole that she is in, and I feel like I'm the only one around her who can see it, or knows what she needs to do. Because when I was in the hole many years ago, I had someone else jump in with me. Now I need to do the same thing.

And it's scary. Seriously scary!

Because once I talk to her about it, she will become one of only about three people in the world who know this thing about me, and I have spent years keeping it that way.

When I first had this problem, and went into the hole for the first time, I was very upset. Especially with God. It led to our first real argument. I asked him "Why me?" and he answered me for the first time. I felt an almost audible voice say "Otherwise how will you help others?"

Don't you hate it when He answers a question with a question?

But He was right of course. Going through it made me into the person I am today, and has shaped a lot of my personality and attitude. It has given me a different perspective on things from many others, which has occasionally been of use. And it also means that I have been able to relate to certain people in a way that others might not be able to. (Sorry to be so vague, but it is hard enough telling you this as it is.)

Who better to walk with a drug addict than a recovering addict? How do you walk with someone who has lost a child if you have never known loss, or talk about being strong if you have never know temptation?

Who better to get into a hole with you than someone who has been there before.

After all, isn't that what Jesus did for us? Or more importantly, what he does for us each day. He jumps into the hole with us, and says, "I've been in this one before, let's see what we can do about this."

You may have noticed that I am a big fan of Finding Nemo. I think that movie is awesome, and has so many biblical truths hidden in it. Here's one now:

******mild spoiler alert*******

Near the end of the movie, the dentist tries to take Nemo out of the fish tank with a net. All the other fish jump into the net, and swim down, thereby pulling the net out of his hand, and freeing Nemo.

Later, Nemo's friend Dori gets trapped in a tuna-net with a school of tuna. Nemo knows how to rescue them, but there is no time to explain it to them, and they are too panicked to listen. So he swims into the net with them, and shows them how to swim down. As a result, the net breaks, and they are all free. Nemo could only help them because he had been in a net before, and had overcome it (with some help from his friends) so he was the only one of them able to see how they could get out of this net. So he swam in, and showed them the way.

********end spoiler***********

Jesus has been in the net before, and he escaped. He has seen the hole from the inside, and knows ever corner. So he is able to help us out.

In the same way, we need to be there for those who are going through tough times, and climb into the hole with them. So when trouble strikes, don't ask. "Why me?" rather ask "What can I do with this?"