dear hilary: shun that bulls**

Dear Hilary,What do you do with the "what if's"? What do you do when you're smiling, writing him a letter, confident of the love you have for him--and then that nasty little "what if" crawls its way into the back of your skull? What do you do when you want to believe that you'll be a good wife and mother and student and friend and God-seeker-follower-lover but that "what if" comes and tells you that you will mangle and destroy and harm everything you touch and that the sin and fear you hate so utterly will tie you down and win?love,doubting thomasinaDear doubting thomasina,I try not to swear too much. It's not so much because I don't believe it's ever right but more because I want to be sure that I do so powerfully - that I name things what they are, that I respond with force to things that are forceful, vehemently to things which deserve my vehemence.And the "what ifs", my dear, are not more nor less than bullshit.Yep. I said that word, and I would say it again. The what if's, which slide up to you, glamorous, sleek, offering you a glimpse into the future, the chance to plan ahead, the chance to give you a head start on everything coming your way - they're a bad apple. A bucket of bad apples.The question, "What if this happens?" sidles up to you, and suddenly, then, it seems almost irreversibly, you're far and away down the road of worrying, convinced you've got it wrong and you look behind you and the what if is far away down the road, laughing.I believe that this is the work of darkness in the heart. I'm acquainted with this darkness. I can spin into questions about whether I am a good wife or a good student or a good anything, and from there I ask, "what if I'm not those things and I've been seriously f***ing up every part of my life from birth until now?" It grows, like shadows do at the end of the day - quickly and without warning. And, like darkness, the what if's make you lose your sense of touch, make you feel like you're waving your hand in front of you but you can't feel anything, can't be sure of anything, can't hold onto anything.Oh, how I am acquainted with this.And then there is the fluttering flag planted in your beautiful letter: What do you do?Can I call it, perhaps, how do we overcome? This is what I believe with every fiber of my being: we overcome this bs by shunning it. We gloriously slam the door in its face when it knocks, when it comes around to the side porch, we look at it, and we say "no." Say it with me. No.There is space in the wide wild kingdom of God to overcome - and it begins with no.It begins with shouting back, and I mean it, say it out loud in your room and say it out loud in your letters and say it loud in church or in the car or in the woods, speak it out:I belong to Jesus.Do you remember how Jesus showed us the picture of ourselves, trembling, vulnerable lambs, and then told us - "I am the Good Shepherd"?He said more than that. He said that his sheep know him. That we know the sound of his voice.You writing this to me tells me you know that there is something wrong with the voice of the what-if. It doesn't sound like Jesus, does it? It doesn't sound like the Good Shepherd. It doesn't sound like hope, like love, like confidence in Him through whom we are more than conquerors, through whom we are co-heirs, through whom we are raised up on the last day and never lost.The voice of the what-if is the voice of a stranger.You can call bullshit on that.You can shout-sing-cry-whisper-pray-rage it, tell it that you belong to Jesus, that you do not listen to the voice of the stranger.And then, however you can, in words or tears, in laughter or hope or something else altogether, ask Jesus to call out to you again who you already are. Ask Jesus to tell you the better story of your life, of your hope, of your wonder, of your worth. Ask Jesus, "who am I?"Hear yourself called beloved again. Then, holding onto that, shun those what-ifs.Love,hilary