An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.
The most common question found anywhere in the Bible and in human activity is wrapped up in one word: “why.” Through time eternity, man has been constantly asking the question “why.”
Upon being requested to go to a distant land to carry the word of God, one early prophet asked God why. Why have you chosen me? Don’t you know that I can’t talk? Why didn’t you take someone more capable than I am? Men enduring all kinds of hardships ask God why does this or that have to happen to me. A distracted mother worried with a wayward boy or girl finds herself standing up in a corner crying out why.
A man bent on doing a great job in the position he finds himself asks himself time and time again why did I chose to do this or that? A young teacher bent on doing a good job in the classroom, discounting all of the hardships she later encounters, stand up in distraction asking herself why? One of the greatest tragedies of today is wrapped up in the fact that in the heart of all of the best dreams and ambitions one finds himself setting out to do there are thousands and thousands of unpredicted adversities into which runs which he had never anticipated.
THEY LEARN
I look at young people preparing to be ministers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, and other worthy positions in life filled with their dreams. They tell me what they are going to do when they get out into the world. It does not take them long after getting out into the world to realize that, in far too many aspects, life is largely a matter of falling into a beaten path and doing the best you can within the framework of that pattern.
You stand up and watch your chosen ambitions thwarted. You see your choice dreams crumble to the dust. You stop and wonder what happened to that world that you were going to revolutionize when you got there.
One day you wake up and find out that you have been out in this world for 15 or 20 years and many of the things, or, in fact, most of the things, that you thought that you were going to do are still on the shores and you yourself have not been able to go out too far yourself. Then this great question comes to you: why? It takes more time than one realizes to get the wheels of progress moving. I have often said that to many of us, one life time is entirely too short to realize anything of great consequence. In our short span of years, the biggest thing that many of us can do is lay the foundation upon which someone else will have to build.
Our whole program will have to be a program of indoctrination and hope that that person or those persons who are indoctrinated will have the moral stamina to carry our program on and thus indoctrinate someone else with the same program that, in the final analysis, the program will become a part of enough people’s lives that the original mission will be realized.
ASK WHY
The question of why is one that comes up in the mind of the people who have been thwarted in some mission. How unfortunate it is that, in spite of the most cherished dreams, many of use see those dreams go to nothing and later find ourselves ashing why.
In the midst of many of the thwarted dreams, many people upon their sick beds wonder why the sickness, many suffering with the maladies of life wonder why, many enduring financial strains or social handicaps wonder why. In spite of all of these, man must find some undiscovered faith that will lead him on and upward through these hardships into a world of fuller service and greater dedication.
Many people who have found themselves going through life’s darkest hours look back after these ordeals have passed and wonder how it was that they were able to come through. But when a true evaluation is made of the situation, they learn that the ability to hold on when life became hardest and moments became dullest was that one thing which led them to these victories.
FINAL VICTORY
The final victory is won in proportion that each of us as individuals is able to surmount the “whys” of life and go on to greater successes. We can’t let the eternal “whys” stop our climb to worthwhile contributions in this world. The “whys” in our lives may serve as momentary impossibilities in the lives of many of us, but when we can reach back into an apparent nowhere and find a faith that will lead us to the real meaning of life, then and only then we can make our short span of years worthwhile. History reveals that many men who have had the shortest span of years punctuated with the greatest handicaps have been able to make some of the greatest contributions. So can we.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 