From Hypothetical to Concrete.

What if there were no more ‘what if’ questions?

‘What would it look like’ statements can be thrown in that lump too.

Let’s get rid of them both. While we’re at it, find any other statements that are similar to these and never ever use them again for casting vision.

These statements are no better than hypothetical questions that carry 0% responsibility on the person or organization saying them.  We can sit around all day and ask ‘what if’ and never leave our seats. I can ask myself,  ‘what if I ran another marathon?’ and never lace up my shoes. A person can say, ‘what would it look like if I lost 40 pounds?’ and then continue to eat cake.

What if? doesn’t run 26 miles and what would it look like? can’t diet.

Perhaps we say things like this because we’re afraid of that accountability and we don’t want to actually do what we’re know we should do?

We talk a lot about risk, but perhaps we are afraid of failure to the point of never willing to, risk?

Or maybe we are afraid to ask the deeper questions to the ‘what if’ and ‘what would it look like’ questions.

The ‘Why not?‘  or ‘What’s stopping you?’

It seems that we’ve created a culture that likes to imagine but doesn’t like to do.

I’m not saying that these statements don’t have their place. These are effective questions to get people to think past their current circumstances and into the realm of what could be. But I’m seeing that the change stops there. So what I am saying is that I believe it’s time for us to move past the hypothetical and into the reality. I believe it’s time for us to put legs to our dreams, get our hands in the mud, get off the couch and get to work.

I’m talking to myself here too.  I’m prone to wonder about distant possibilities.  I’m guilty of asking myself, ‘what if I followed Christ in a deeper way?” or “what if I extended grace before judgment” or “what would it look like if I lived what I’m learning and what I’m talking about?”  I’m needing to move past these hypotheticals into the deeper questions and find out why I’m not doing these things,  and ‘what is actually stopping me?‘

That is where the work begins.

I need to talk less and do more,  let my actions fill in the blanks of what my ideas are. I need to live out the lofty ‘what if’ and the vague ‘what would it look like’ to the point that I can say, ‘this is what it looks like in me…’, and ‘this is what happened when I…’ demonstrating rather than talking. Living the reality instead of dreaming about it.

 

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~ by Brad on June 1, 2011.