Great news! Spring has sprung and we are beginning to turn the corner on the pandemic.  For those who have embraced real hope, your spiritual life is also turning and your life is beginning to bloom.  You have reversed the flow and are heading back home to the Garden and the promise of the abundant life! But as with any journey there are many obstacles that must be overcome in reaching one’s destination. The same applies to one’s spiritual quest, so let me introduce you to one of the most challenging obstacles of all – the ‘what if’ disease.

What exactly is the ‘what if’ disease? Simply put, it is a Wasteland condition that causes one to plan a future without considering God’s plan for our future! No one is immune and if we allow the disease to fully manifest it will cause us to second guess every major and minor decision we make and result in fear, anxiety and paralysis. Ah yes, the ‘paralysis of analysis’ which comes upon us as we contemplate every possible ‘what if’ that may or may not come to pass. You understand what I’m talking about – what if I’m making the wrong decision; what if something bad happens; what if I don’t get what I want; what if things don’t turn out the way I hoped!  Listen, dwelling on what might or might not happen will cause the sturdiest of hearts to falter. And worst of all, in our effort to manipulate our circumstances, it will lead us to try to control what is not in our power to control; God himself!

The Old Testament Prophet, Jeremiah, tells us that those who trust in themselves and their own efforts and try to control every aspect of life will ultimately turn their hearts away from God.  They will  become like a bush in the desert and will not see prosperity when it comes. Translation, when we ignore God’s plan for our future and take matters solely into our own hands we wander through life fearful, anxious, paralyzed, wanting to control the uncontrollable, and blind to the hope and blessing God has in store. 

On a personal note, I’ve discovered over the past year that the ‘what if’ disease runs deep and is rooted in hopelessness. We no longer ask ourselves ‘what if things don’t get better’ but rather, ‘what if God can’t make things better and what if He doesn’t care! This existential angst has become very apparent during the global turmoil of 2020 which makes the call to embrace real hope that much more urgent. So let me be clear! God is real. He does care. He is in control. He does have the power to restore all things. And, he has a bountiful plan for each and every one of us!

Living with the real hope that God is for us trumps living with ‘what if’ disease a million times over.  So take it from someone who spent close to fifty years living in the Wasteland, dwelling on all its ‘what if’!  Keep walking ever forward, your hand in His, and leave the ‘what if’ behind.  

Dario L. Perla