One of Life’s Biggest Words: ‘If’

Have you ever considered how big the little word “if” is? Consider a few simple examples:

“We will go on a picnic tomorrow if it doesn’t rain.” 

“If the Tigers beat the Bears, they go to the championship game.”

“We’ll buy that new car if I get that raise.”

But there are even bigger “ifs” that have had far greater influence in the course of humanity, such as:

What if the colonists had lost heart and given up their fight for freedom from England?

What if Jonas Salk hadn’t discovered a cure for polio?

What if the Allied forces had not prevailed on D-Day?

What if people had accepted the opinion of Ken Olsen, a technology pioneer, who declared, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home”?

Sometimes we can get in trouble by dwelling on the “what ifs” of life, but even the Bible seems to put a high premium on “if,” although it approaches the term in a somewhat different way.

Proverbs 2:1-5, for example, presents a classic “if-then” scenario:

“My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”

This says it’s conditional – if we do what’s instructed, to sincerely and earnestly pursue wisdom and understanding, then we will gain a deeper, more profound, life-changing understanding of God. Looking at it from the opposite perspective, if we don’t engage in this pursuit, then we can’t expect to experience God in any meaningful way.

These “if-then” conditions God sets forth aren’t found only in Proverbs. They appear also in Philippians 2:1-3, where the apostle Paul wrote:

“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one spirit and purpose.”

I particularly like this passage, because it’s framed almost in a sarcastic way. It’s like Paul chiding the believers in the ancient city of Philippi, “You do have encouragement from being united with Jesus, right? You do find comfort from His love, right? You do have fellowship with God through His Spirit, right? You do experience His tenderness and compassion, right? Well, if that’s the case, then avoid divisiveness. Be like-minded, share the same love from God and for one another, be united in spirit and purpose!”

An amazing admonition. And it all hinges on one little word: If. 

In a sense, the word “if” defines one’s faith in Christ. If the Scriptures aren’t true, if – as skeptics are some fond of saying – that it’s all fantasy, fiction, fable, then nothing really matters. We’re fated to live in a meaningless, purposeless, directionless world. However, if what the Scriptures say is true, that trusting our lives to Jesus Christ is indeed Good News, that makes all the difference in the world!

So the question we all must address, along with the answer we provide, is very simple: What if? How we respond can’t help but shape our lives, the here and now, along with our eternal destiny, in the hereafter. 

The Weight of ‘What If?’

As we journey through life, many difficult questions confront us. Few are more perplexing than the universal interrogative, “What if?”

You know: “What if I had done this, instead of doing that?” or, “What if I made that decision, instead of this one?” For many people, the echoes of “what if” plague them throughout their adult lives. They wonder what might have been if they had gone to a different college, if they had taken a different job, or if they had married someone else.  

Sometimes it’s a singular act: “What if I had turned left instead of right – or if I had just kept going straight?” “What if I hadn’t canceled that appointment?” “What if I had been better prepared for that interview?” “What if I had made that investment, or taken that risk I chose to avoid?”

The problem with what-if ponderings is there’s nothing we can do about them. They exist in the increasingly distant past, and no amount of wishing or remorse can restore them to the present. H.G. Wells’s fanciful time machine has yet to be invented, and even if we could send ourselves back to fateful moments in our personal histories, there’s no certainty we could change anything anyway. And if we could, what might be the impact on the “space-time continuum,” as fretted the characters in the film, “Back to the Future”?

In reality, even if  (sometimes it’s hard to escape that “what if” phrase) we could alter decisions or actions in the past, there’s no guarantee that the outcomes would have been better than what we’ve experienced.

For instance, I spent my first year of college in Houston, Texas, then transferred to the Ohio State University, where I majored in journalism. What if I hadn’t transferred? Or if I’d transferred, but not to Ohio State? I would have had a different set of friends and professors. My career path probably would have been different, perhaps dramatically so. I wouldn’t have become the ardent Buckeye fan that I am. And I wouldn’t have met my wife in a Columbus, Ohio suburb, gotten married and been blessed with the children and grandchildren we’ve had.

Sure, there are things along the way I’d like to change. More than a few, actually. But even my failures, blunders, and foolish decisions have turned into experiences from which I’ve profited and grown. We often think, “If I only knew then what I know now,” but usually we know things now because of mistakes we had to learn from then.

If there was anyone who wished he could change the past, it was the apostle Paul. A one-time zealous persecutor of those who followed Jesus Christ, he literally saw the light on the road to Damascus and became an irrepressible Christ follower himself. He sometimes reflected on his past life, but ultimately concluded, “…But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

The apostle wasn’t ignoring or excusing his previous actions and attitudes, but recognized the futility of dwelling on the unchangeable past. Instead, he chose to focus on the present and the future, intent on not adding to his collection of regrets.

We also have the assurance of knowing that when we act unwisely, God already has dealt with the “what if” questions and ordained an acceptable resolution. “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11).

We needn’t worry about foiling the Master Planner’s sovereign plans. He’s already studied our lives, from beginning to end, and made contingencies for every “what if” along the way. “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).

So fear not. “Oh, no!” isn’t part of God’s vocabulary. As the song says, “When you don’t understand, when you can’t see His plan, when you can’t trace His hand, trust His heart.”