I think the current crisis has taught our brains to constantly ask, “what if?”
What if I get sick?
What if my parents get sick?
What if my kids get sick?
And this leads to other ‘what ifs?’
What if I lose my job?
What if I lose my house?
Our brains quickly become adapted to dwelling on this question. It permeates the way we think, and becomes a habit that shapes the way we see the world. Our brains become addicted to this cycle of negative reinforcement and fear, and it quickly becomes the filter by which we see the entire world.
We run through all of the worst-case scenarios in our imagination, and we feel all of the stress, fear, anxiety, and helplessness as we’re imagining these hypothetical scenarios, just as if we had actually experienced the traumatic event we’re worrying about. Our pulse goes up, adrenaline and cortisol fill our veins, our bodies ramp up inflammation, and all of the physiological damage is imparted to our body even though this hypothetical event hasn’t occurred. But our health is none the wiser, as our bodies believe this was a real event; not a hypothetical scenario.
And in the meantime, we’re missing out on every single good thing that God wants to do through us.
Jesus left us with instructions to ward against this destructive mind trap:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
… “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” -Matthew 6:25-27; 33-34
What if we changed our ‘what ifs’? What if we asked an entirely different hypothetical?
What if God uses me today?
What if God takes care of all of my needs today?
What if God’s will is perfectly done in my life today?
What if I live a full life today?
What if I have the opportunity to love my friends and family today?
What if I’m perfectly healthy today?
What if I have the opportunity to give to someone in need today?
What if I’m able to share the gospel with someone today?
What if I can pray for someone today?
What if I can change someone’s life today by something I do or say?
What if something bad does happen to me today, but I get to grow through the process, and become closer to God and more like His Son?
Since we are creatures of habit, this will take some work to retrain our brain. As soon as a negative thought begins to form, we need to stop it in its tracks and invert it into a positive:
“What if I get sick…..hold on. Stop. Let me rephrase that. What if I am perfectly healthy today and I can serve someone?”
This is difficult work. Our natural inclination is to default to negative thoughts, so if we’re not consciously aware and paying attention at all times, our mind will inevitably drift to a bad place. The important thing is as soon as we realize that we’ve gone to that place again, we reverse course and transform our ‘what if’ to a new ‘what if’.
And as we repeat that process over and over, day in and day out, we will learn not to feed our mind with fear. Instead, we will learn to fill our mind with faith.
And Jesus promises us that when we do this, we are building the Kingdom, and God will take care of all of our ‘what ifs’ along the way.
Worry is faith, but it’s the wrong kind of faith. It’s faith that God, in the end, cannot take all situations and turn them around for good.
If you find yourself in a state of worry and negative thoughts that are paralyzing you, I encourage you to remember to turn back to this first entry in the book, and read it as many times as necessary. You may need to do it every day, and that’s o.k.
I would encourage you to take this section and print it out (take a photo and print it out, type into a word processor and print it out, or write it out by hand). Then tape this to your mirror so that it’s the first thing you see in the morning, and the last thing you see before you go to bed.
__________________
What if we changed our ‘what ifs’?
What if we asked an entirely different hypothetical?
What if God uses me today?
What if God takes care of all of my needs today?
What if God’s will is perfectly done in my life today?
What if I live a full life today?
What if I have the opportunity to love my friends and family today?
What if I’m perfectly healthy today?
What if I have the opportunity to give to someone in need today?
What if I’m able to share the gospel with someone today?
What if I can pray for someone today?
What if I can change someone’s life today by something I do or say?
What if something bad does happen to me today, but I get to grow through the process and become closer to God and more like His Son?
This is a section of my book, “Comfort in the Chaos – Deep Thoughts on God and Faith” which you can get a copy of here –> CLICK HERE
Science with Dr. Doug 