DAY 4:

I love the movie Napoleon Dynamite. If you haven't seen it, it's one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen with some of the strangest but most hilarious characters. My favorite character in the whole movie is a guy named Uncle Rico. Uncle Rico is this guy, if you can picture it, who's basically living out of his van, and sadly he's still living in the glory of his high school days when he was, by his own estimation, the star quarterback poised for greatness. He spends his days parking his van out in a field, and then he runs old high school passing routes while watching VHS highlights from him as a high school player. He says things like, “Back in ‘82, I used to be able to toss a pigskin a quarter of a mile.” At one point, he says, “How much you want to make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains? Yeah, if Coach would have put me in the fourth quarter, we would have been State Champions, no doubt in my mind.” But my favorite line from Uncle Rico in that movie says it all. “Man, oh,” he says, “I wish I could go back in time. I’d take state.” Uncle Rico was still stuck in the past, wondering what would have happened if Coach would have given him a shot. 

Many of our “what-if” questions stem from things that haven't entirely gone the way we thought they would or hoped or dreamed they would in the earlier chapters of our stories. Disappointments, doors closed, dreams deferred, unexpected and unwanted twists and turns that leave us asking, “what if.” What if I'd gotten that promotion? What if I got into that other college? What if she hadn't broken up with me? What if, what if, what if. You can fill in your own blank there because we all have them. The disappointments in our past can steal our focus away from the present and rob us of the future in front of us if we let those “what if” questions consume us.

I think about a moment when Jesus stepped into someone's disappointment just as the “what if” questions were swirling. He received word that his friend Lazarus was very sick. The ones who sent the message were hoping that Jesus would drop everything and come to heal Lazarus before he died, but in John chapter 11:6, it says that “When he heard Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days.” Actually, by the time Jesus did arrive, Lazarus had already been in his tomb for four days. He was gone. You can imagine the “what if” questions being asked by his grieving friends and family? They had a direct line to the only one who could heal Lazarus. What if Jesus had come right away?

In fact, in verse 21, Martha says this to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Martha was asking a ‘what if’ question from a broken heart. Jesus responded by saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” Then He raised Lazarus from the dead, answering Martha's ‘what if’ question in the form of a dead man walking out of a grave. Here’s a “what if'' for you. What if God is not surprised by that very chapter in your story that's dominated by disappointment? What if He's well aware of the dream that's been buried and making plans to bring a new dream to life? Think about that. We are powerless to make our lives go perfectly the way we think they should, but the word ‘perfect’ still very much applies to our lives, and here's how (we can thank God for this): His plan is perfect, and His timing is perfect. 

These words from the “What If” song seemed appropriate for the story of Lazarus. This is what I wrote: “Last I checked, this heart inside my chest is still beating. Well, I guess it's not too late...” 

Perhaps it's time for you to check your pulse. Is your heart still beating? Are your lungs still breathing? Then, guess what? God's not done. He's not done working in you; He’s not done working through you; he’s not done working for you. It's not too late, let's go! No “what ifs.”