The Terrors of the "What Ifs"

My oldest son, Caleb, is a gun ENTHUSIAST!! He readily and happily exercises his second amendment right to keep and bear arms.

When my children were much younger, we didn't have any guns in the house. Now don't get me wrong, I fully support the 2nd amendment, but since my husband isn't a hunter we never needed any for that purpose. As far as home security, I had enough faith in my Savior to trust him with the security of our home over a gun. Any day, all day! I just always felt that it was more of a danger having one in the house, especially when they were old enough and unfortunately curious enough to get hurt with one. But when Caleb was old enough to legally own a gun and wanted to start collecting, Tim and I agreed that everybody in the house was old enough to have the good sense to leave a gun alone, so we allowed him to keep them in his room, and I'm okay with that.

I wasn't so okay with it a few months back though. I had taken my two youngest children out for ice cream, leaving Caleb cleaning one of his rifles and his sister, Bekah, and her boyfriend were hanging out in the family room downstairs.

When we got back home, I no sooner got in the door when Ryan, the said boyfriend, told me that Caleb's gun had misfired while we were out!! When it misfired it put a hole in my boy’s bedroom wall, through to the bathroom door, next door and into the bathroom cabinet. The bullet had shattered into pieces, leaving little evidence of its existence behind.

After making sure everyone was okay, I immediately... fell apart!! Not from the damage done to the house. Not because Caleb's gun misfired, it wasn't his fault. No, it was from all the things that came to my mind that COULD HAVE HAPPENED! The "what ifs".

Even though the Lord had taken care of everybody in the house; He took me and the two youngest completely out of the house and He took Bekah and her fella downstairs, completely out of the area, even though... the "what ifs" attacked and I couldn't stop thinking about it!!

What if we'd been home and Lydia was in the bathroom when it went off.

What if I had been in my room, which is directly below his, and the bullet came through his floor/my ceiling and killed me.

What it Bekah and Ryan had been upstairs in her room. The bullet was heading that way. (its trajectory ended two rooms short, but still... WHAT IF?)

A more recent story about the terrors of the "what ifs" happened to my sister, Stacey. Her youngest daughter had an early morning doctor’s appointment in Atlanta, so my sis and her two daughters thought it'd be fun and a good idea to stay in a hotel the night before the appointment so they wouldn't have to get up so early and deal with rush hour traffic going into Atlanta. Pretty smart idea, I'd say!

The appointment went well, the trip home, uneventful, but when they got home they discovered someone had not just broken into their home, but had completely busted the backdoor down, taking the hinges with it. The house is an old one, and the backdoor was in my youngest nieces’ bedroom!

The police was called, detectives arrived. After learning that my niece had recently been dealing with a stalker, the detectives decided that this was no longer classified as a burglary. Since it wasn't simply a broken window and with all of their valuable jewelry just lying around, nothing had been taken except for the gun and a hunting knife my dad had given them for protection.

HOME INVASION. The detectives upgraded the case to a home invasion. Doesn't the thought of that just get the "what ifs" started in your own mind? A FAILED one, praise His name, but a home invasion none the less. They reasoned that the tearing down of the door would have been a shock tactic to throw them off guard and for him to gain control.

Needless to say, my sister and her girls started looking for a new place to live immediately and stayed with our parents that night, but the following night, Stacey and her oldest daughter stayed at the house, packing late into the night. The next morning, after the daughter had left for work leaving Stacey completely alone with her thoughts, her fears and her utter exhaustion, the "what ifs" hit with the full force of an invading army.

I received a phone call from her around 10am. When I picked up the phone, I thought she was laughing, because she was gasping for air and struggling to speak, but she wasn't!! She was truly terrified! She said, "Christy, I'm having a panic attack. I can't get it together. I can't think. I can't pray. Pray with me, Christy. Pray with me!"

I immediately began praying in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He'd send peace to her soul, calm her nerves and let her feel His presence there with her. Well it didn't take long before our prayers were answered. She calmed down and was able to tell me what had gotten her so torn up. It wasn't what HAD happened, it was the "what COULD HAVE" happened. The "what ifs" had struck again. Those "what ifs" were monumental!! Her youngest child could have easily been abducted. They could have all been killed in their home... or much worse. And on and on and on they went. That's when I told her about those ol' "what ifs"!! You see, the “what ifs” are often far worse than the “what really happened...s”. ;) The "what ifs" are unrealistic and irrational figments of our imaginations.

Irrational: unreasonable, illogical, groundless, baseless... in other words NOT REAL!!

But the story doesn't end there!

After a few more words of encouragement, our phone call ended and I was out the door zooming to an appointment. Shortly after we had hung up I got a text from Stacey, but since I was still in route, I couldn't read it, so I didn't reply. Within a few minutes the phone started ringing. It was Stacey on the other end.

"Did you get my message?!!" she asked excitedly. I explained that I had, but hadn't been able to read it. She said, "Well, I've just got to tell you!!" She explained that there is an app on her phone that sends her a daily Bible verse. She confessed that she rarely took the time to read them, but today she did. When she read what God had sent her, her jaw fell to the floor. On her cell phone screen the verse read..

'Be strong and courageous! Don't tremble or be terrified, because the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.'"

Joshua 1:9

Needless to say, she was shouting and praising God. I was shouting and praising God. We were having church right over the cellular wave lengths! Her in her house of terror and me in my car, stuck in traffic!!

What really got me about that verse, on that app, on that particular day is that God orchestrated it all!! Who knows how far in advance the writers of the app puts the verses into code. But God knew the exact day Stacey would need to be reminded of that promise. PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME!

I have no doubt that it was the "what ifs" that took Peter down on the Sea of Galilee, when by faith, he had taken those first few steps out of the boat and onto the water. He had his eyes fixed on Jesus, but what happened next? I bet if we could have seen what was going on in his head, we'd have seen the "what ifs" come creeping in. What if Jesus isn't enough? What if He lets me drown? And just like that, down he went.

Another observation I took away from this situation was this, that God doesn't always show us what he's protecting us from. I'm sure when we get to heaven and learn of all the times He delivered us from danger, we'll want to spend a few more hundred years just kissing his feet and worshipping and thanking Him. But sometimes God chooses to let us see what He's protected us from so we can see that HE'S GOT OUR BACKS!! I call this faith fluffing.

Faith fluffing: (v.) when God does something to prove to us that He is enough, that we can trust Him, to fluff up our faith in Him

If and when the terrors come, just remember that most likely it's the Lord doing some faith fluffing, reminding you that "I got this!" And then when the "what ifs" come creeping in, remember that not only did the Lord deliver you from the actual terror, but from all the possible scenarios of that situation as well. That should give us more grounds for shouting, than to shake in fear of the "what ifs".

#FaithFluffing #Deliverance #Encouragement