Discussion: If
September 4, 2020
I was watching a rerun of “Touched by An Angel” and in one particular scene the man on the screen used the term, “if”. Tess the head angel looked at him and responded the saddest word used in the language of mankind is “If”. I concur with her. Genesis Chapter One lets us know in creating man, not one time did God use if in the creation. Our place on earth started with, “let them have”1 not if and “be”2. Our journey is to have and be (to become) is our destiny as we move through life.
God has not forgotten his original intention for us. Every life born on this earth possesses a “let them have” and “be” attachment to their life. Even for the baby that is born and merely lives for a couple hours. Whether it was something the parent (s), hospital staff etc. was to get from the birth, in that birth it was not fruitless, but held significance. Many times sorrow blinds us from understanding the message linked to the life.
What is your personal if? What would you think and do, if, if was not standing as an unseen force in front blocking you? To express this more plainly, what excuse have you packaged or wrapped your, if in? When you sit and look back at your story, what is it that tugs deep in your mind, which your heart could not release? When you begin your discussion explaining your life does it starts with “if” only this had or hadn’t happened” I could have done this or been this.
What is it we believe caught God by surprise in our life, which stories do we tell of our life as if it slipped passed God and that’s why I am where I am? What is it we think God missed in our birth, the household we were born into, not knowing genuine love, the devastation and betrayals we suffer that must have slipped passed God. Because God couldn’t have included this in my, “let them have” and “be” and expect me to make it through life?
I feel I need to go back to the last paragraph, a touch on betrayal, after having two (2) back-to-back conversations concerning this subject matter in one week. I have spoken to people who lives were given over to depression, therapy or not being able to forgive because of betrayal. Through my years of counseling I have listened to stories through their tears or anger and bitterness. And most ended with “they are going to reap what they sowed”. Then they watch that person's life waiting for it to fall… what they consider to be their harvest!
There are several scriptures I wish to share and think they will set you free to move on with your life. “Do not take revenge… It is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord”… 3 “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles…” 4 Now to share my thoughts, again these are my views. We know nothing slips pass God, so God saw what was going to take place in our life. Which means his intention for us to live a fruitful life didn’t alter. We looked at the betrayal as something against us, because our expectations linked us to what we gave or trusted to the one who betrayed us. Listen to what I just stated, our expectations were linked. Not on understanding God’s plan of why this needed to take place. There are people who 5, 10 and 15 years down the road who look back and see what they thought was a betrayal as a blessing. It positioned them into a place to receive more than they could ask or envision for their life.
When we travel in our car and see a sign that says, Dead End and we ignore the sign and come to the dead end we have decisions to make. We can remain there refusing to turn around and take another route. We can look at a sign that says Road Washed out Ahead and stay on that road. Or turn around and follow the sign that read Detour Here. Life doesn’t provide us written and printed signs, but incidences to move us forward, to shift directions. It is our emotional connections that have shipwrecked so many. Not God… he saw it! There are people waiting for us to move beyond the betrayal, because we have something they need. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” 5 I learned as my seniors say, “God knows it hurts, child” and it does. Do I live in the hurt or step beyond the betrayal. To God was it actually a betrayal or our expectations that characterized it as a betrayal. Are we watching for someone to get pay back to what they did to us, when they simply were a detour or road ends here?
The saddest word use in the language of mankind is “If”.
Our biggest task in God’s plan for our life was to just speak, to just say, 6 and to remember “the tongue has the power of life and death” 7. It’s ultimately not in our parent, not the employer who just fired you after being with a company for 18 years, not a spouse that up and leaves after 25 years of marriage, not being wrongly incarcerated, there are so many things to throw us off our life path. Yet, God did not get thrown off or get lost or forget us. As long as we continue to look outside of us at someone else, if will be our steady guide throughout life.
We go to the “ifs” in our life to support losses, failures, regrets, etc. believing we require this to feel better, even though we don’t feel better. It’s our “go to” for momentary satisfaction. Emily Dickerson wrote
We never know how high we are.
Till we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Our statures touch the skies-
The Heroism we recite
Would be a daily thing,
Did not ourselves the Cubits warp
For fear to be a King-
If we are true to his plan, it is the key to the creative intention for mankind. There are things/people in life that will always show us what’s in our heart. We all know of someone personally or read of someone who got through hardship, physical and sexual abuses and made it. People like Tony Robbins (motivation speaker, author, and philanthropist) and Steve Harvey (entertainer, Steve and Marjorie Foundation Outreach for fatherless youth, and businessman) who both were homeless and slept in their car. Then there is Les Brown along with his twin brother was born on the floor of an abandoned building and Les labeled “educable mentally retarded” in the fifth grade. Mr. Brown is an international motivational speaker, author, former DJ and a former House of Representative for Ohio. What was it that kept holding them upright inside, to persevere, to consider their circumstances and said “not me”?
This is the good part, the part we neglect. We retreat when we only need to rest or refresh. “Come unto me all who are tired and heavily burdened… I will refresh your soul.8 (Recognize, weariness comes from within and the body reacts). There is a plan for your life and “If” is not a part of it. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plan to prosper you and not harm you, plan to give you hope and a future.” 9
Please see the video of Chad Boseman at the end of this discussion.
God’s Plan:
Let them have
Be
You speak it
Life and death are in the power of the tongue
Faith without works is dead10
Come to Him… When fatigued and heavily burdened
The plan for your life is not a secret
Footnotes:
1 Gen. 1:26-27
2 Gen. 1-28
3 Romans 12:17-19
4 Proverbs 24:17-18
5Genesis 50:20 (New Living Testament)
6Matthew 11:23
7Proverbs 18:21
8Matthew 11:28-30
9Jeremiah 29:11
10James 1:27
Chad Boseman:
Thank you for joining me for Friday at Sundown. Remember… Just Breathe!
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