What If…?

The “What if…?” men­tal game can be fun. It can lead to new pos­si­bil­i­ties or become the key phrase lead­ing into your own cav­ernous neu­roti­cisms. I use it when I am brain­storm­ing. It can be an essen­tial part of cre­ativ­ity (or destruc­tive self-doubt). It is the phrase that intro­duces pos­si­bil­i­ties. I can almost hear Colum­bus in his pon­der­ings: “What if the world is round instead of flat?”

Tak­ing my cue from Jesus, I some­times pon­der life from an oppo­site per­spec­tive. What if we are here to find strength through our weak­nesses? What if we were given a planet with a clear atmos­phere so we could behold the immen­sity of space? What if this is all really the story of a lov­ing God instead of the blind evo­lu­tion of mere matter?

I have fun with the way the phrase opens up new pos­si­bil­i­ties. What if we could cre­ate an econ­omy that uses a min­i­mum of fos­sil fuels? What if we finally solved the rid­dles of cold fusion (and thus had end­less cheap elec­tric­ity with­out pol­lu­tion)? What if the next gen­er­a­tion dis­cov­ers that we are a bunch of idiots?

“What if…” is a double-edged sword. It can open up pos­si­bil­i­ties and judg­ments at the same time. It is dan­ger­ous to start any sen­tence with it. We are also fool­ish if we do not. Surely we can improve on our stand­ing in life!

I do not waste my time in wish­ful think­ing, but I do call into ques­tion all the ways that things cur­rently run. Call me a dreamer, but also give me credit for hav­ing the courage to ques­tion the sta­tus quo. What if we had sev­eral vibrant polit­i­cal par­ties instead of the two bor­ing dom­i­nant ones we have now? Ever notice how offen­sive a “What if…” can be?

Despite the pop­u­lar touted views of life, I ask myself: “What if we live for­ever?” “What if this is just a prac­tice run for some­thing greater?” “What if the deci­sions I make today make an eter­nal difference?”

Never set­tle for the bland “what is” with­out ask­ing the grand: “What if…?” Chal­lenge all that has become estab­lished. Ques­tion the ques­tions. What if in doing so you rise above the sta­tus quo?