Weekend Worship—What If…NOT a Place for Believers to Dwell

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

This past week our family had quite a scare. 

Our youngest son was back home from college and at a trampoline park with friends. He landed wrong and broke his back. 

Fortunately there was no spinal cord damage.

Now, I’m good in a crisis. For some reason what makes other people panic creates in me to the ability to act clearly and decisively. So when they brought him home, I was woman-in-control. I can be calm and clear-headed in the worst catastrophe.

At least until the crisis is over.

Then I fall apart—sometimes for several days. The slightest things will bring uncontrollable sobs. And it’s all because I’ve taken up residence in the place of What If.

We’ve all been there, caught in the unending loop of shoulda, woulda, coulda. We replay scenarios, letting our minds wander from bad to worse.

• If the break had been on millimeter to the left or the right.
• If we hadn’t gone ahead and taken him to the emergency room.
• If there had been swelling. 

The dark places of What If are populated with nightmares of our own imaginings.

But this isn’t a place that believers need to go. We are protected from the horrors of what if by an all-seeing God. He never sleeps, and He never relaxes His vigilance on our behalf.

This doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen—far from it in this world. BUT we have His promise that He will take those tragedies and turn them into good. He has our future well in hand.

So when you’re tempted to vacation in the land of What If, take a deep breath, look up and choose to dwell in the land of certainty. It’s a place of welfare, not disaster, and it’s filled with hope.