In this age of social media, we hear a lot of warnings about comparisons. Don't covet the image someone is posing on Instagram, don't measure your life compared to someone else. While these are good advice and worth following, there is another lesser-known game we fall into that can be just as deadly. It's the question of what if.
In our lifetime we are faced with a multitude of decisions from where to go to college to whom to marry or if you want to marry, what job to apply for, where to move, how to raise our kids if we have kids, and so on. Most of these decisions are {hopefully} made with careful thought and intention, knowing the outcome will affect any future decisions we come across.
But sometimes when our circumstances seem hard and the trials unending and we view all the other people in the world making other decisions and doing other things, we start to question if we really knew what we wanted back then.
Did I marry the right person? Where would I be if I'd taken that job? What if I hadn’t made that mistake? What if I hadn’t done that? What if I had moved there, gone to that church, learned that skill….
It's a never ending game that's pointless in every way. Not only can we never go back and make those decisions over, we are in a very real way stepping out of where we currently are and being dissatisfied with the outcome. We've all made bad choices, we've all had things we want to get another chance at. But that doesn't mean God has stopped working with where we are.
I think of David from the Old Testament. He had many choices to make, some good, some not so good. When he was the only one brave enough to stand up to Goliath {I Samuel 17:26} he showed real trust in God and made the right decision. When he married multiple women {I Samuel 18: 27; 25: 42-43} those decisions would have consequences for the remainder of his life. Then we have his sin with Bathsheba {II Samuel 11}.
Throughout his life, David had much to ‘what if’ over and decisions he probably regretted. However, many of the Psalms were written while he was in the midst of a trial. There were perhaps times when he looked back on his decisions and wondered ‘what if I had done something else.’ But we have his words in Psalm 40: 1 — “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.”
You see, after we make a choice, God doesn’t scold us for making a wrong decision. Sometimes there are consequences to what we choose and we have to live with them. But God doesn’t leave us there, hopeless and alone because we should have chosen the other path. His character is the same. He is still with us. We’ll never know the outcome of the what ifs in our life, but that shouldn’t stop us from serving God and seeking him right now where we are.
When we are struggling and maybe regretting something from our past, we can run to God and pour our heart and cares and concerns to him. And he is faithful to hear our cry.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash