IF
“If” is a powerful word. What does it mean? If is a meeting place like when planets align and create a special moment during night time meditation. In 2016, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury could all be seen through the same lens and I once saw a planetarium presentation that claimed the Bethlehem star was really the once in several millennia alignment of three planets, which caused the appearance of a brilliant star over Bethlehem at the time of Christ’s birth. If is a meeting place that presents a gift of wonder that seizes consciousness and says, “Wait here a while and fill your life with possibility.”
Possibility joyfully injects doubt into ones life. People are so focused on building a track to run on that they may become railroaded into believing that yesterday is all there is. Have you ever had someone come to you with a problem? You invest time listening to their story and results that have led to chronic suffering. As they unfold their story, you seek to align your life and theirs. You realize that along their journey they could have discovered a different way and you are puzzled that the repetition of their behavior and its consequences had occurred so many times and over such a long period of time.
When they finish pouring out their agony and pause for your response, You tell them of the way they missed during their imprisonment on the track they chose to run on. Suddenly, a light fills their eyes, erasing the fatigue of the misery of a lifetime spent missing the mark. They have made a turn and looked out the window of their railcar, seeing the beauty of the possibility of a new way. You experience the joy of hospitality, knowing that you have witnessed someone finding comfort in a home that has given you comfort, joy, and peace. As they rise up from their chair, they strangely make a brief reference to the view from the track of misery. They turn their back and move toward the door. You watch them closely, your face perched with a smile of shared joy and encouragement. As they place their hand upon the door, they look over their right shoulder, embracing the satisfaction in your eyes. Yet, the light no longer dwells in those eyes, the comfort of contented shoulders is replaced by the stiff determination to walk out the door and get by on the track they have lived upon all of their life. The door closes and in bewilderment you ponder, “Was I just a familiar stop on the track they run on?”
When gathered into the meeting place where “If” resides, it is not enough to know the awe of something new and wonderful. One must be open to If’s question, “Whether, so?” There is no true meeting unless there is a true contemplation of the consequences of another way. That which is new must be given a serious opportunity for selection. The implications of the other way must be internalized, life following selection must be understood. What will I have to give up and what will I gain? What will I have to learn and what will I have to forget? What price might be required and what price must be paid? The first lesson If teaches is that wisdom is not found in what I know but knowing what questions I must ask.
The new choice must be given an honest chance of becoming the new way I will live, for the meeting is always followed by “so.” No one can know every detail of their future. That is why every one lives by faith. Likewise every choice we make is prayerfully followed by the word Amen, which means So Be It. No one can live two lives at the same time, but the gift of time often gives us the opportunity to live many lives. If is the power to live a different life and that is a great power.
What If there was born the eleventh son of twelve to an aging father who lived with integrity and by the principle, “The First Shall Be Last and the Servant of All.” What If this child was given a coat of many colors and wore it in gratitude even though his siblings were jealous. What if this child believed God gave him a message that would save his brothers grief even though the content of would raise their hatred and lead to his enslavement. What if this child now a slave refused the sexual advances of his masters wife out of loyalty to the bond of husband and wife and was thrown into prison for the insult. What if this child interprets two fellow inmates dreams honestly when one interpretation will mean freedom and restoration and the other will mean death, even though he remembers the last time he was honest it led to his enslavement and imprisonment. Might the most powerful man in the world identify his talent and elevate him to his right hand? Might this child save a nation from famine and chaos? Might this child of God save his brothers and his father and embrace them with love, perpetuating the future of their heritage? Might this child of God embrace his family in love and be satisfied returning to his own children, happy that his younger brother Benjamin would claim the honor of carrying on their heritage into the future because he was willing to live and die for the principle, “The First Shall Be Last and the Servant of All?”
The only way you will know is if you choose "The Way."
Possibility joyfully injects doubt into ones life. People are so focused on building a track to run on that they may become railroaded into believing that yesterday is all there is. Have you ever had someone come to you with a problem? You invest time listening to their story and results that have led to chronic suffering. As they unfold their story, you seek to align your life and theirs. You realize that along their journey they could have discovered a different way and you are puzzled that the repetition of their behavior and its consequences had occurred so many times and over such a long period of time.
When they finish pouring out their agony and pause for your response, You tell them of the way they missed during their imprisonment on the track they chose to run on. Suddenly, a light fills their eyes, erasing the fatigue of the misery of a lifetime spent missing the mark. They have made a turn and looked out the window of their railcar, seeing the beauty of the possibility of a new way. You experience the joy of hospitality, knowing that you have witnessed someone finding comfort in a home that has given you comfort, joy, and peace. As they rise up from their chair, they strangely make a brief reference to the view from the track of misery. They turn their back and move toward the door. You watch them closely, your face perched with a smile of shared joy and encouragement. As they place their hand upon the door, they look over their right shoulder, embracing the satisfaction in your eyes. Yet, the light no longer dwells in those eyes, the comfort of contented shoulders is replaced by the stiff determination to walk out the door and get by on the track they have lived upon all of their life. The door closes and in bewilderment you ponder, “Was I just a familiar stop on the track they run on?”
When gathered into the meeting place where “If” resides, it is not enough to know the awe of something new and wonderful. One must be open to If’s question, “Whether, so?” There is no true meeting unless there is a true contemplation of the consequences of another way. That which is new must be given a serious opportunity for selection. The implications of the other way must be internalized, life following selection must be understood. What will I have to give up and what will I gain? What will I have to learn and what will I have to forget? What price might be required and what price must be paid? The first lesson If teaches is that wisdom is not found in what I know but knowing what questions I must ask.
The new choice must be given an honest chance of becoming the new way I will live, for the meeting is always followed by “so.” No one can know every detail of their future. That is why every one lives by faith. Likewise every choice we make is prayerfully followed by the word Amen, which means So Be It. No one can live two lives at the same time, but the gift of time often gives us the opportunity to live many lives. If is the power to live a different life and that is a great power.
What If there was born the eleventh son of twelve to an aging father who lived with integrity and by the principle, “The First Shall Be Last and the Servant of All.” What If this child was given a coat of many colors and wore it in gratitude even though his siblings were jealous. What if this child believed God gave him a message that would save his brothers grief even though the content of would raise their hatred and lead to his enslavement. What if this child now a slave refused the sexual advances of his masters wife out of loyalty to the bond of husband and wife and was thrown into prison for the insult. What if this child interprets two fellow inmates dreams honestly when one interpretation will mean freedom and restoration and the other will mean death, even though he remembers the last time he was honest it led to his enslavement and imprisonment. Might the most powerful man in the world identify his talent and elevate him to his right hand? Might this child save a nation from famine and chaos? Might this child of God save his brothers and his father and embrace them with love, perpetuating the future of their heritage? Might this child of God embrace his family in love and be satisfied returning to his own children, happy that his younger brother Benjamin would claim the honor of carrying on their heritage into the future because he was willing to live and die for the principle, “The First Shall Be Last and the Servant of All?”
The only way you will know is if you choose "The Way."
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