Sunday, April 28, 2024

What if? What Are You Scared Of?

 

Students love to play the game of “What if? Especial when they don’t want to do the current assignment. It has its place. Looking at all the possibilities and having plans B, C, & D is not a bad thing. But if it just becomes a form of worry, it can lead to fear, which can be paralyzing.


What if it breaks?

What if it fails?                      What if I fall?             What if the rope breaks? 

What if my parachute doesn’t open?

Admittedly, there are things I’m not comfortable with. I will probably never go sky diving purpose. I just cannot see the point of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Bu skydiving is more on the extreme side. Are there normal things you avoid because of what ifs? I know people that avoid going out in public because of everything they hear in the media. You might get shot in a movie theater or at a fast food restaurant. Someone might have a disease that you can catch. I don’t go for walks because there may be dogs running around.

We all have fears, and that’s ok. Some I don’t quite understand, but in the end it’s a personal thing. When we first started working with the homeless, I’ll admit, I had my reservations. Now we hug, fist-bump, and share the stories of their lives. My wife has even had the opportunity of leading several to Christ. It comes down to this: Do you trust God? You are just as safe in the “Hood” with him watching over you than in a fancy house with a high tech security system. I’m not advocating running around in reckless abandon. Wear your seatbelt. Climb with a safety rope. Put your kids in a car seat. What I am suggesting is, to find what God wants you to do, and do it fearlessly. It’s not always easy at first, but it’s the safest place to be.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34 NIV

 

No comments:

Post a Comment