What if...

picture source

I am very good at imagining scenarios.

As a writer, my mind can rapidly create a scenario and then go on to imagine the effects and all the possible outcomes should that scenario happen (you don't have to be a writer to possess this talent...many people are brilliant at this creative, imaginative work).

In my writing, this is beneficial; my characters usually have great depth and the scenarios that I create are believable and follow a logical path.

But in my everyday life? This skill is not so great.

I am still learning how to harness my creative mind; the way that I process and make sense of my world. It seems that my real life is a lot like the worlds I build in my novels; full of infinite possibility...everything is connected and anything could happen. I take the simple, everyday happenings to a global or infinite scale...that dizzy spell is possibly a brain tumor...that tuna casserole that I made - the one that tasted a bit different than normal - will probably keep my family up all night with food poisoning. I imagine ramifications and sometimes create solutions for (or freak out about) things that have not happened. May not happen. Probably won't happen.

So, sometimes, my life feels like a really, really bad story. Full of horrible potential.

What if...

As I was sitting down with my laptop this morning, I began to brainstorm a new type of what-if list and I thought I would share it with you today.

You see, the odd thing is, in all my imaginings, with all my creativity, I very rarely imagine good scenarios. It's always the bad ones that steal my brain cells and hijack my emotions. Because of this, you will quite often find me at varying points on the spectrum of stress; anywhere from niggling worry to all out fight-or-flight body-war. The mind is a powerful thing!

As I compiled this list, amidst a morning of mundane, tiring tasks, I began to take heart. I felt life course back through me once again. Because truth brings life. You can't encounter it and not change. The following 'scenarios' find their basis in Scripture. See if you can think of verses to confirm them.

What if... everything gets better?

What if... this difficulty (whatever that is) that I am facing is making me unbreakable?

What if... I am finding myself?

What if... I am going to help others?

What if... my friends love and value me in their lives, warts and all?

What if... I can't escape the goodness of God? What if it follows me forever?

What if... He will only allow what will make me strong?

What if... I don’t have to prove myself?

What if... everything that I value in my life (my family, my friends, my gifts and passions) were all actually free gifts of God and did not come about by any great effort on my part?

What if... I'm growing stronger daily?

What if... I'm allowed to feel bad (and I don’t need to fear it), I can just lean into it and God and let Him move me through in new and creative ways?

What if...I am actually a pretty cool person and my life is going to go quite well?

What if... God is good and He loves me?


If you are a what-if kind of person, try a different approach. Give yourself freedom to explore scenarios: good ones. See if it helps!

The Counter-Cultural Nature of Trust

picture source

For a long time, I have been aware of my biggest battle in my Christian walk. Maybe it's something something you can relate to.
Trust.
The foundation of the faith.
We are supposed to take God for His word. To lean hard into it, in the face of adversity. In seeming contradiction. And yet, unfortunately, most times, when the going gets tough, I split.
I've been doing it ever since I was a little girl, when I thought I found my first flaw in the Bible. You see, I've always been an analyser, a thinker. Kinda smart. But not so smart that I know to trust God, period. Just smart enough to go, 'Ahah! God, I've found a loophole and I just can't get past it!'
(Not so smart at all, actually)

It's no wonder, given this attitude of mine, that I have struggled with anxiety.When you think that you can outsmart God, or that you have somehow out-thought Him, the result is pretty much guaranteed. You're gonna feel anxious. Maybe not immediately, but eventually. It's a pretty big call to think you've found error in the Creator of the Universe.

I'm thirty four years old and I am just beginning to grab with determination God's instruction to trust in Him with all my heart and lean not to my own understanding. It would have made my life a whole lot easier had I grabbed it by the horns twenty years ago. But I had my own journey to take.

Leaning not on our own understanding...
This instruction pretty much flies in the face of a progressive, post modern world.
Christians look pretty ignorant these days, by education standards. Casting our doubts into the hands of God can get us the label of 'ignorant', 'blind' or 'naive'.
Modern culture encourages us not to be wary of our understanding, but to use it as a navigational tool for truth.

How well is that working, do you think?
Six billion people each using their own understanding to navigate and interpret the complex, multi-faceted world of ethics, morality, and truth.

I've touched on post-modernism before and while I definitely engage with some of the issues the movement raises -- and consider myself an advocate for critical thinking -- there are times when we need to put our thinking on the altar. God offers a unique way to find truth, one that bypasses the mind and goes straight to the spirit.
Faith.

After all these years running in the circles of 'intelligent thinking' I have come back to my pretty simple, base foundation, which is:

God is good and I can trust Him.

It's blind trust.
It's basically stupidity.
And deliciously, ironically and counter-culturally it's the starting point for knowledge.

'...The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.'

Psalm 19:7b