Why NOT me?

I was struck today by this title (chapter 9) of Gerald Sittser's A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss.

He writes: "No one is safe, because the universe is hardly a safe place. It is often mean, unpredictable, and unjust. Loss has little to do with our notions of fairness. Some people live long and happily, though they deserve to suffer. Others endure one loss after another, though they deserve to be blessed. Loss is no more a respecter of persons and position than good fortune is. There is often no rhyme or reason to the misery of some and to the happiness of others." (p. 107)

He continues: "Loss deprives us of control. Cancer ravages, violence erupts, divorce devastates, unemployment frustrates, and death srikes--often with little warning. Suddenly we are forced to face ur limitations squarely. Our expectations blow up in our face. We wonder what has gone wrong. We resent the intrusion, the inconvenience, the derailment. It is not something we were planning on! 'Why me?' we ask." (p. 108)

But his 3 years of reflection after the tragic car accident led Sittser to believe that the better question is not "Why me?", but rather "why NOT me?" This is closer to the reality that most people live. The accident initiated him into a "fellowship of sufferings" that spans the world.

He writes: If I have learned anything over the past three years, it is that I desperately need and desire the grace of God. Grace has come to me in ways I did not expect. Friends have remained loyal and supportive, in spite of my strugles. Quietness, contentment, and simplicity have gradually found a place in the center of my soul, though I have never been busier. I go to bed at night grateful for the events of the day, which I try to review and reflect on until I fall asleep, and I wake up in the morning eager to begin a new day. My life is rich and productive, like Iowa farmhand in the late summer. (p. 114)

He writes: "God, spare us a life of fairness! To live in a world with grace is better by far than to live in a world of absolute fairness. A fair world may make the life nice for us, but only as nice as we are. We may get what we deserve, but I wonder how much that is and whether or not we would really be satisfied. A world with grace will give us more than we deserve. It will give us life, even in our suffering." (p. 115)