Lynn Jones: “If” is a big little word
By Lynn Jones
“If” is a very small word, but it has tremendous power and influence. A careful use of the word “if” can have an enormous impact upon life. Sometimes, we use the word as a club to hit ourselves over the head about previous mistakes. For example, “If only I had not made that bonehead decision.” Or, “If only I had not said that.”
Of course, the fact of the matter is that we cannot change what has happened in the past. The poet wrote: “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on. Not all your tears, nor all your regrets can change a single line of it.” To spend all our time wishing that something had not happened, only weakens us in our ability to cope with the consequences.
Sometimes we use the word “if” to excuse ourselves from some responsibility. For example, “If only I had the training, I would be glad to teach a Sunday School class.” Or, “If only I had the talent, I would be glad to take that position.”
There’s an old story about a little man who was sitting with a group of his friends around the cracker barrel at the old country store. In the circle of friends, there was a big man who was twice the size of the smaller one. The little man said to his big friend, “You know what I would do if I were as big as you? I would go out into those woods over there, find the biggest bear that I could find, and fight him with my bare hands.” The big man responded, “You know, in those woods there are a lot of little bears.”
We sometimes play that game. We think of all the big things we could do if we had certain abilities. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of smaller things that we could tackle that would be well within the range of things that we could accomplish.
In the book of Daniel, there is the story of the three Hebrew children who were threatened by the king with the fiery furnace if they did not worship his golden image. They responded, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us. . . But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” In a real sense, an index of maturity in our lives is how far we have moved from the “if” pole of life toward the “nevertheless” pole. How about you? How far have you traveled?
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.
