What if Abraham wasn’t?

In Genesis Chapter 1: 1-3 God said: “Go, get out of your country and when you do, I will make of you a great nation, I will bless those who bless you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Have you ever thought about “what if”? What if Abraham hadn’t gone? What could have happened?
Many people came from the lineage of Abraham: Moses, King David, even Jesus Christ. If Abraham had not obeyed God’s command, would any of those people exist?

Maybe they would have, but we can’t be sure. Everyone knows the basics of science. It takes a certain egg and a certain sperm to produce a certain child. Have you ever thought about your own creation? I have. At one point my mother married a man and after seven years together they still had no children. My mother then had an affair with an older man who was married to someone else and conceived on a few “dates.” The mother’s husband went on to have children with his new wife after they separated and she also had two more. Why didn’t they have children together? Why did my married biological father and my married mother have to conceive me? Because it was the right egg and sperm for my spirit to inhabit my body.

After my biological father abandoned my mother, she married another man. He was a very angry and abusive person. He tried to bury his pain and pain by horribly mistreating my mother and drinking hard liquor. He was not the type of person who would ever admit that he needed someone or something, and unfortunately that man became known to me as my dad. He raised me from when I was two until I got married for the first time at 18.

At age 20 I became a Christian and one of the first things I started doing was praying for my family to give their lives to Christ. I knew my father was hard-hearted and only wanted religion on his terms; He certainly had no idea what a relationship with Jesus Christ would be like. I was the Christian anchor that kept my family in place.

One day, after being a Christian for a few years, he was fed up with the lifestyle. At that time, my life was getting worse. I started thinking, ‘If life is that difficult as a Christian, it couldn’t be that much more difficult not to be.’ Maybe walking away from God would give me some peace. ‘ Then I heard God in my heart, “What about your dad? If you stop serving God, who is going to be the one to pray for him to become a Christian?” I stopped short. I thought about ‘what if’. What if I stop serving God and then everyone in this family is really lost? It is one thing for me to think about going to hell, but it is quite another to take a whole group of people with me.

It goes without saying that I did not stop serving God and almost 40 years later, I am passionate about my walk with Christ more than ever. It took me 20 years to pray for my dad and hear that voice that said “your dad will go to heaven, but it will be a deathbed experience.” Eventually he was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and at the end of his journey he gave his life to Christ. What if I had walked away from serving God in my early days of struggle and doubt? I completely shudder to think of where I would be personally, but also where my family would have ended up. My mother also passed away and, like my father, she became a Christian at the end of her life. My brother also accepted Christ and I am still actively praying for my sister and her family.

Sometimes we are asked to do things that we just don’t want to do. We may be called into a ministry similar to someone who is already successful. What they are doing seems so glamorous compared to what they have asked you to do. They have arrived, they are already living the life that you think you are called to live … So how did they get there and are you swimming in circles? I see the ministers who have been very successful and are doing well in their ministries and sometimes I get frustrated because I don’t want to do the work they did to get there. I often believe that God blessed them because they must be doing something right and, in turn, I must be doing something wrong. But that’s not all … It’s work. No matter how you cut it, it’s work. It may seem glamorous when they talk about the places they travel, their big income, nice clothes, and money to live a good life, but what if they hadn’t obeyed God? What if they hadn’t done what you told them to do? Many of us would have missed tremendous teaching, preaching, and life-changing experiences if we had not followed God’s gracious call to our hearts.

I could sit down and list all the things that could have happened if I hadn’t obeyed. My list of ‘What if …?’ It would be long and decidedly dark. I’m currently on another fork of ‘what if?’ Along the way: I am called to be an international seminary writer / author / speaker with some preaching here and there. But there is a price to pay … I work one day full time. I will go to work at approximately 7:30 a.m. M. Every day, I have an hour for lunch and then I’m home at 5:30 p.m. M., 5 days a week. I also work some on Saturdays to earn some extra money for the household, because our income is limited and the extra money on Saturdays is useful.

I am tired when I get home and I have practically no days off. When I am not working my day job on Saturdays, I am shopping for groceries and trying to spend quality time with my husband. On Sunday we go to our Sunday morning church service and then we work on another service thereafter. I don’t know about you, but I’m an introvert. I can be outgoing to the point where people really think that’s the real me, however I do have to have time to regroup and recharge. If I have not recharged, I am angry and in a bad mood and I am not very good company for anyone. This life situation gives me many excuses why I cannot do what God has asked me to do.

The fact that God has not supernaturally changed our financial situation does not allow me to use these excuses. I have avoided what I have been called upon to do for too many years. As I keep getting older, it finally comes down to cable.

And you? What are you going to do with your ‘what if’ moment? You can’t say you don’t have one, because we all do. We all have those moments when we feel a shock in our hearts, but we are simply not sure if we want to follow that mandate or not. Don’t let your “what if” moment cause you to miss out on what is possibly the best you can get. I’m glad I didn’t give up when I faced mine!