What If?

Over the next several weeks we will explore several "what ifs."  I like asking 'what if?' for lots of reasons.  It challenges me to think beyond the normal.  It leads me to consider things from a new perspective.  It causes me to take a proactive approach at life rather than a passive approach.

'What if?' begins with an assumption ... no a realization ... that there are forces at work beyond my normal field of view.  Sunday I encouraged you to look for the times God is moving obstacles and sending you very real messages to guide your life.  To see and hear these God-sent events, you must take a look at where we are and what is really happening around us.  It takes thought and concentration.  I will give you an example from something that is going on all the time ... weather.  I am getting many more weather alerts that I have ever gotten, especially tornado alerts.  I asked myself, "What if there are many more tornadoes than there used to be.  I looked at data from NOAA and learned something interesting.  The incidence of tornadoes has increased and decreased over time in a very cyclical manner.  Our current cycle is not abnormal at all, and we actually may be on the low side of the historic cycle of these storms.  So ... what is really happening?  Our ability to predict tornado signatures on radar has vastly improved.  Our attention to tornadoes is heightened because of the Lee County disaster and the hurricanes that have impacted our immediate area.  I wonder if this happens with other news that is either over-reported or under-reported?

Here's where I am going with all of this.  One of my new favorite songs is called "Stay and Wait."  It is a song about our 'condition' as humans, God's power/goodness as our hope and our response as people of God.  The tag line goes ... "I will stay, should the world by me fold ... lift up Your name as the darkness falls, I will wait, and hold fast to Your Word, heart on your heart, and my eyes on Yours."  What if the world around us is driving into a cosmic ditch filled with bad stuff?  What if the darkness of terrorism is falling all around us?  What if these things are under-reported?  What if they are over-reported and are part of the historic cycles we have seen for centuries?  And here's a what if that is worth considering ... What if God, His Church, His plans and His grace are the solution to dispelling the darkness we see or perceive?

The song presents a God who has loved us through rebellion, has shown us the way of perfection and is worthy of being the ruler of our lives.  What if we followed as we say, sing and profess?  Randy