Why Me?
This week on American Idol, Casey Abrams, who is a favorite among the judges, was eliminated before he made it to the top ten. The procedure for those who receive the least number of votes that week is to sing one last time before the judges, hoping that they will use their "save" to keep the contestant on the show. However, in this round, no one expects the judges to use the save. It's just too early in the show. But as Casey began to sing the judges immediately said, "Stop! We don't need to hear you sing. We know who you are and have decided to use the save." Casey almost, well, he did fall down. I thought he was overracting a bit until he spoke. You see, the stunned singer, with a dazed look eventually said in utter disbelief, "Whe would you [save] me? I can't believe it." That is a great question for every Christian to ask. Why would God save me? The answer is found in Ephesians 2, where Paul says, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)." He saved us not because of our spiritual lovliness or moral obedience (after all, we were dead in our sins), but because of his mega-love. His perfect, eternal, adopting affection that went to the cross to reclaim the rebellious children so that we might glorify him for the overflow of his undeserved but lavishing agape-love. Why me? It's not because of me. It is because of God. As Steve Brown would say, "You think about that." Maybe we, like Casey, will find ourselves falling down... on our knees... in worship.