I heard a story of a little girl who sat scrunched up at the bottom of a trash can.  She looked up at the circle of blue sky and heard a voice say, “You’re nothing but a piece of trash.”

We hear words.  We read words.  We can choose to believe them.  We can choose not to believe them.  

At first glance the two words in the title of today’s blog appear to contradict each other.  But, I think  there are people who say they believe in God and His words, but they don’t live like they believe the words of God.  Take this Bible text for example; “I am leaving you with a gift–peace of mind and heart.  And the peace I give is the peace the world cannot give.  So don’t be troubled or afraid.”  John 14:27.  

Jesus says He gives us peace and because He gives us peace we are not to be worried or afraid.  But, how many of us live a peaceful, unworried, unafraid life? 

Let me tell you a story to illustrate;  I had just put together a futon frame with my oldest daughter.  The next step to finish the project was to place the mattress on the frame.  It sounds so easy, but it wasn’t.  This wasn’t one of those thin cheap mattress’s,  this was the thick heavy mattress. I gripped one end as tightly as I could while my  daughter held onto the other end.   We counted one, two, three and tried to coordinate tossing the mattress onto the frame.  It didn’t work out so well, we were  both laughing so hard at our puny efforts there was no way we were going to get that thing onto the frame. My skinny 15 year old son walked in the bedroom and said, “Move out of the way and I’ll put it on there.”  I stopped laughing long enough to offer him our help.  I would hold onto my end, my daughter would manage her end and he could help in the middle.    He waved his arms and dismissed us.  “No, just move out of the way and I’ll get it.”   We stepped away from the mattress, but I kept talking even as he moved forward to get the job done.  “Now don’t hurt yourself, we can help you if you need us…”  He ignored my ramblings and bent over, folded the mattress  in half and popped it onto the frame.  Easy peasy.  I was amazed at the strength in his skinny arms and body. He did not need our help.

 Let me say that again– He did not need our help.

Let’s go back to sitting at the bottom of the trash can. When life has put you at the bottom of the trash can and God is standing there offering to help you out, to give you peace, do you look at Him and think He can’t possibly help you?  Do you believe the words the world tells you about being ‘just a piece of trash’?  I think too many times we see God  standing there and we aren’t sure He has enough power to help us out of our situation.  But when God offers to help us we need to be quiet, quit offering to help Him, and quit giving Him advice.  If we just move ourselves out of the way He is perfectly capable of lifting us out of the trash can.  All we need to do is move ourselves…move our pride that says we can do it all ourselves…out of the way.  Then God will give us the gift of peace He has promised us and throw our fear and worry into the trashcan.    

What if.  What + If = Change. “What If”can precede a positive statement.  But, I think most of the time we use those two little words in a negative way.
What if my hair doesn’t look right?

What if my son is in a car accident on the way home?

What if I can’t fit into the dress I bought for the wedding?

What if I run out of money before my next pay check?

What if I lose my job?

“What If” marches ahead of everything we do. It either motivates us to move forward or it paralyzes us with fear. The more we use those two little words together in a negative way the larger they become until they start to look like Goliath. Instead of being small enough to instantly brush aside, they grow until they block the road ahead of us and we can’t move past them.  And there we sit, stuck in traffic because “What If” has us paralyzed with fear.

“What” asks questions. “If” throws doubt on a situation. God has the answers. What if we didn’t question God’s answers? What if we started believing His truths….really believing them and acting on them?

The rich young ruler, in Matthew 19:16-26, asked Jesus what he must do to obtain eternal life. He had plenty of money and he had followed all the rules as set out by his culture. Despite outward appearances he felt something was missing on the inside. But when Jesus told him he needed to sell his belongings and give the money to the poor he must have run through a few “What If’s”.  What if he sold everything he had and gave it to the poor? His friends, neighbors and relatives would think he was crazy. What if they thought he was crazy?  He would be ostracized from them, looked down upon. He couldn’t do that….be looked down upon. The fear paralyzed him from moving into a new life with Jesus. The fear paralyzed him from receiving the true happiness that only God can give to fill up the empty space in our hearts. “What If” caused a traffic jam in his life and stopped him from moving forward. He had received the truth, but he didn’t allow it to change him. “What If” caused a traffic jam and stopped him from moving the truth from his head to his heart. It is only when the truth lives in our heart that it can change us.

When a truth lives in our heads we talk about the truth, but we don’t live it out in our lives. The truth only changes us when it moves into our hearts. Truth is a paradox, it always remains the same, but it changes who we are when we decide to live it and not just mentally assent to it. We are coming up to a new year. I challenge you to move a few of the truths who live in your head into the upgraded facility of your heart and see how it changes your new year.