Trade Your Ifs In For Faith

21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.

23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

28 And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.

29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.

30 Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.

31 The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.

32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

In the world today, we have found ourselves in unchartered territory. All of us, every one of us have never passed this way before. None of us have ever lived through an international shutdown before. We have never seen a time where schools, churches, and most everyday types of businesses were closed. We have never had social distancing rules for six feet of separation before. Never has there been so many Americans on or file for unemployment and out of money before. We have rushed to the grocery stores to purchase (and sometimes fight over) hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and a loaf of bread. Right now, there are people worrying about how they are going to feed their family or pay next month’s mortgage or rent. People are worried with the what ifs of life today and it is causing panic in the streets.

I know there is a lot of us in panic mode right now. Have you ever experienced a panic attack? Well here is what usually happens, The fear rises in your chest without warning. Your heart begins to race, and your pupils dilate. Dread and shame quickly weigh you down and before long you cannot catch a breath. It feels as if an elephant were sitting on your chest. You might even pass out. You might become nauseous. You might break out into a sweat. What if this happens or what if that happens.

It is a dark, scary place — the kind of place you never hope to find yourself in. And for some us, it is a place we never in a million years thought we would ever be in as we seem to stand right now. Some of us are still waiting on the temporary band aid of a government stimulus check, still waiting on the less than transparent tax collector called Internal Revenue Service to give us a miniscule bailout to buy a few groceries and pay a few bills, but after it is spent we will wonder what’s next or what if they don’t send it for some reason?

There’s panic in the world today, we are worried about catching the virus ourselves or what if our friends and loved ones catch this dreaded and extremely dangerous virus?

We are worried about the doorknobs and handrails and faucets and toilet seats we will inadvertently touch. We are worried about the stranger who is standing a little too close to us. We are worried about a government that is more concerned about the economy than the lives of its citizens, and a president* who holds uninformative press conferences each day in order to take the place of his campaign rallies until he can talk the governors into reopening their states despite the virus.

We are just worried and panicked right now, What if? But the text illustrates that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if you’re a child of God, there’s actually no need to panic and we can trade our ifs in for faith. Before I go any further, I would be remised not to say that I know very much so what it means to panic. I have to tell you that despite every ounce of faith and belief within me, I’ve been in the panic pit more than a time or two. In reality, too many times to count.