Why

I'm going to take a break from the book for a blog or two to talk about something that, in my last installment, has haunted me since April 2004 and in the wake of recent tragedies seems particularly relevant.    

Why.

We all want to know.  Why did the Newtown CT and the Boston Marathon massacres happen?  

I have two things to share with you today.  First is a scene from one of the best films ever made, Shadowlands, about CS Lewis, one of the most controversial Christians and a hero of mine.  

The second is part of the answer as to why I entitled Chapter 5 of The Rock 'Giant Ants Dancing Around Wearing Top Hats' from a skit from the greatest comedian, Louis CK also a hero of mine, wherein which he's trying to answer his daughter's question why they can't go outside in the rain.  

Taken together they form the crux of my faith and that's what I'll be talking about in Chapter 6.  I've lost it then found it.  I fell from God's grace then was blessed in an unbelievable way.  

I've asked why.  I've even asked why about why in some sort of egregious philosophical stalemate.  

As much as I'm trying to keep this story moving forward I still keep retracing my steps and it comes back to the beginning, back to why.  And I know alot of people are going through this now.  And here's my thought for you - some of you are going to get about 80% of the way to finding the answer and then it stops.  

A good friend of mine, a graduate in philosophy once told me, "It isn't about the answers.  It's about the questions."  I was a young lad when we had that discussion and while those words are true to a point, but as a man whose born witness to some of the greatest glories of life and most senseless tragedies, faith takes you the rest of the way.  

It's the final rock that you climb or the last bend on your journey or sadly enough, it's the last breath you breathe with a loved one. Or your last whisper.  Why.

None of us can ever answer why.  God doesn't give that gift to us.  But he gives us the gift of asking...