What if...?

I told LuAnne this morning that I was going to do a Stack today entitled “What if…?” It was going to be a thread of about 25 random thoughts, posed as questions but of which I was 95+% sure were true. Such as:

• What if the foggy mist settled over Schaeffer Road this morning wasn’t a result of temperature change so much as the chemtrails (or geoengineering) that is so ever-present and active in the skies above?

Or…

• What if Obama is actually getting his 3rd term in the White House, yet doing it in his sweats from the basement of 2446 Belmont Rd NW, 2 miles from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? (What former President has stayed in DC [this long] after leaving office?!)

But…when I floated the idea by LuAnne, she struck it down! In all fairness, she told me I could do what I wanted, but she thought the post would come across as a “know-it-all” to people unfamiliar with the questions. She suggested a question at a time would be more appropriate. A wise preacher once told me to be very hesitant to do anything that my wife doesn’t approve of—in other words, don’t do it! Regrettably, I haven’t always honored her in this, but I have tried to make this a habit of life. So that’s as many of the 25 questions as you’re going to get in this post!

However, I kept thinking of “what if” throughout the day—between patients, when I took a brief walk outside to enjoy the 70 degrees, and generally when I wasn’t thinking of something else. Because writers always need to be ruminating on their next topic!

Then I remembered that LuAnne had sent me a “what if” meme the other day, before I was thinking about this post. Maybe that’s what subconsciously triggered this post.

And then we went to vote this afternoon around 4:45 at our local precinct, St. Paul’s UCC in Schaefferstown. Some of my readers, like me, were raised in religious settings which didn’t allow their members to vote. Others of my readers are active political constituents. Thanks to one such patient, we approached the social hall with names in hand of who we were going to vote for. I generally try to avoid the canvassers outside the door as they’ve never changed my mind at the last minute. But one such canvasser just couldn’t be avoided. He approached us with this introduction:

I’m J. P. Santos, and I’m running for the ELCO school board. But what I really want to tell you is that I’m a follower of Jesus Christ.

In less than 30 seconds, he briefly shared his Christian testimony and why that mattered to him since he has a young daughter who will be going to school in the district in a few years. I glanced down at my ballot and saw that he was one I was already planning to vote for! I know that conservatives don’t run for school boards these days to score political points but rather because they’re deeply concerned about the future of our local communities. Here’s a picture from Facebook of his wife and him.

We went in and cast our paper ballot for him and other conservatives who we think might make a difference in our community. Yes, since 2020 (I believe), our precinct uses good old paper ballots—sort of like doing achievement tests when I was in elementary school!

So, all of this got me to thinking about a different series of “what if” questions. Such as:

1. What if I did value my Bible as much as my phone? I like to think I value it way more than my phone. After all, I’ve read it from “lid to lid” (as an old River Brethren once said in testimony meeting!) many times. I read it every morning. I’ve read through commentary series with Bible in hand. But seriously, how much do I value it? How much have I committed to memory? How much have I hidden in my heart?

2. What if I was as bold in my faith as JP?

3. What if the only thing that really mattered to me was to be a humble servant of my Lord?

4. What if my only prayer was, “Increase my faith”?

5. What if when my own Moabites and Ammonites come against me for battle, striking fear deep in my heart, that I pray with Jehoshaphat: “For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chronicles 20:12, ESV)?

6. What if when there are no blossoms on the fig tree, no fruit on the vines, no flocks in the fields, and no herds in the stall, I still rejoice in the Lord and take joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17ff)?

I encourage you to add a few more of your own “what if” faith questions. I leave you this evening with another verse LuAnne shared with me the other day:

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:14-14, ESV).

Dr. Yeager’s reflections on goodness, truth, and beauty and their impact on life, medicine, and theology; what it means to live as male and female reflections of the imago Dei (Genesis 1:27); not intended as individual medical advice.