What If?

What if I were born in a different country?

What if I were born in biblical times when Jerusalem was being punished?

What if I were born in the Ukraine and another country was attacking and destroying all that I know?

What if I didn’t know God?

What if I didn’t know His Son, Jesus?

I can’t imagine these “what if’s”. I sometimes have a hard time understanding the depth of pain that others feel. Sure, I’ve had pain, struggle, and deep disappointment. I’ve just never experienced the level of pain that I’ve read about that has happened in the past or is happening currently.

Jeremiah, the author of Lamentations is spelling it out in writing, his deep grief and lament for the results the punishment being carried out, that was promised by God.  He circles back to a plan of how to walk through the struggle. Check this out….

¹⁸ Cry aloud before the Lord,
    O walls of beautiful Jerusalem!
Let your tears flow like a river
    day and night.
Give yourselves no rest;
    give your eyes no relief.

¹⁹ Rise during the night and cry out.
    Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him in prayer,
    pleading for your children,
for in every street
    they are faint with hunger. (Lamentations 2:18-19 NLT)

What if I got what my sin deserved?

What if there was no grace for me?

What if my sins weren’t forgiven?

What if Jesus didn’t come to earth?

I can become paralyzed by the “what if’s”.  I must lean into the Lord and trust Him with all the “what if’s” that I might ponder.  I can’t begin to imagine what my life would be like without Jesus. He has changed EVERYTHING about my perspective. He has and will be with me through all the “surprises” and “what if’s” that I might face.

Pressing On!

Dwayne