Article December 18, 2000 Issue

Trade 'what if' for 'what is'

Do it and see what a difference it makes.

Diana Davis-Butler

Do you ever find yourself playing the "what if" game? You know, frantically trying to come up with how you would respond if such and such a dilemma arose?

Is there anything we can do to stop "what if" fears from preying upon us? Yes. Examining the basis of fear itself is a good first step to not being afraid. Whatever form fear comes in—fear of illness, fear of failure, or fear of death—its roots lie in the belief that our life is dependent upon material circumstances and independent of God. But the first chapter of the Bible explains that "God created man in his own image ... male and female created he them" (Gen. 1:27). A few verses later it says, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." This "very good" creation is the "what is" God has made. And it's the only creation there is. You and I, God's sons and daughters, belong to this perfect, spiritual universe, where there's no room for evil or "what if" fears.

Of course, one doesn't have to look far to see things that appear less than perfect. But that less-than-perfect view of things results from looking at life from a material perspective. That's the perspective from which the story of Adam and Eve in the second chapter of Genesis is told. The first chapter describes God and His creation in spiritual terms. The second speaks in entirely material terms. Man is made of dust; woman, of his rib. The result is a disaster: they are thrown out of Eden to "till the soil" and bear future generations in misery. But this second account is inconsistent with the nature of God, who is Spirit, and who therefore could not create matter. It's inconsistent as well with a God who is Love, as John's first letter in the Bible describes Him (see I John 4:8).

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