Why Was I Born!

Those who are discouraged, and especially those who are both young and discouraged, are sometimes heard to ask why they were born. Many who have encountered disappointments from which they think for the moment they cannot recover⎯young people whose dreams have been shattered, whose ambitions have been postponed, who breathlessly have expected much from life and find that it has not fulfilled their expectations⎯are sometimes heard despondently to ask the question. Those whose faith in the future is not equal to the problems of the present, often voice this query of complaint: “Why was I born, anyway? I didn’t ask to be.” We hear those who blame parents for bring them into the world, and those who profess to believe that they would rather not have been born at all. The question, sometimes spoken earnestly and sometimes said merely for its melodramatic effect, is heard often enough among young and old alike to call for answer. Job was no doubt one of those who wondered at times why he was born. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, . . . ‘Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding . . . When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? . . .’ (See Job, chapter 38).” The sons of God shouted for joy because an All wise Eternal Father, the directing Intelligence of the universe, had given his children a plan for their never-ending progress, a plan which included the experiences and circumstances fo this life, without which we could not reach our highest possibilities⎯a plan which included birth into a world where man may work out his own salvation⎯and proceed to an eternity of things to come. And so, when we hear someone ask, “Why was I born?” the answer is⎯because birth is the entrance into this life, and this life is a necessary prelude to a greater life to come. We were born because somehow we earned the right to be born, and despite all discouragement despite seeming futility at times, there are indescribably yet more glorious things to come for those who respect the privilege of life.