This morning as I was thinking about a few things I had on my mind, I began to ruminate on the “what ifs.”
What if my grandchild doesn’t have any friends in school this year?
What if my shift in season does not bring me joy?
What if my spouse, or friend, or family member doesn’t understand me and judges me unfairly?
What if I can’t keep up with the pace of my busy life and feel overwhelmed again?
The list goes on, and we all have them.
The question is what do we do with all of the “if’s”? Over the years, I have noted that multi-faceted questions can cause insecurities, stress, and loss of joy. What ifs make us overthink, and that can be exhausting. What ifs bring a connotation of dread, insecurity, sense of loss, or undesired outcome. A better question is:
What now?
Jesus always pointed to what now. He framed his answers with hope and that hope being found in Him alone. Jesus sought the broken, the infirmed, and the outcast. Offering them a future and a hope, a way out from regret and loss, He offered them a way out from the “what ifs” to “what now”. Let’s look at some examples to help make this more concrete.
Jesus met a woman at the well (John chapter 4). She was an outcast Samaritan who was alone and most certainly had moments where she questioned her difficult circumstances. Perhaps as she walked to the well at the hottest time of day to avoid people who judged her harshly, she questioned if she had done something differently, or been born into a different family, or had handled life’s circumstances differently, she would not have been by herself lugging water and feeling all alone. But then Hope came, and His name was Jesus. He told her about Living Water (Himself), who could quench her thirst and offer her a better future. Her “what if” questions changed to what next. Hope comes in the form of forgetting what lies behind and looking to the ONE who can transform our lives.
Another example was the woman who was being stoned because of adultery (John 8). She was hopeless, and I suspect she had a lot of “what ifs” in her head. What if I hadn’t given in to the men who used me and left me desolate? What if I had made a decision to get a better job or withstand the temptation of giving way to hopelessness. Perhaps I would have made better decisions. Regret comes in many forms, but almost always it comes with asking “what if?” Then came Jesus, who confronted her accusers and found a way to bring her to Himself. He alone could pardon. He alone could change her “what if” to what do I do now?
Jesus is the only one who can take our fears, insecurities, and “what ifs” and transform them into hope. Are you feeling overwhelmed with regret? Look to Jesus, and He will heal and restore. Consider joining our community of women on Thursdays or use our DNG Equipping Box found on our website to start a new group. We are a community looking to help one another in our Christian journey.
