Playing the What If Game

The details encourage me!  Occasionally, when I am digging in God’s Word, I discover a little nugget of gold, a clause or phrase that I have read so many times.  But then I will see it and remember that “the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)  It works for me, in this moment, at this place, every day!

 

Today the gold was hiding in the story of Joseph and his brothers when they were reunited in Egypt.  If you haven’t read it for a while, you can find it in Genesis 42-47.  After keeping the faith for years, coming to a position of great power, forgiving his brothers and acknowledging God’s place and control in everything that happened to him, Joseph reveals himself and his forgiveness to his brothers.  A happy reunion, many tears, and great feasting result. 

 

Joseph then sends his brothers back to Canaan to bring their father Jacob and their families and belongings again to Egypt to settle in the best of the land by Pharaoh’s orders, to be nourished and taken care of during the remaining five years of famine that will still come.

 

Joseph has very carefully explained to his brothers that God brought him to Egypt and that he has forgiven them completely.  He has prepared great material comfort for their trip home and the return and they are on their way.  But the payout comes in Genesis 45:24: “So he sent his brothers away, and they departed; and he said to them, ‘See that you do not become troubled along the way.’”  

 

I love this!  He was telling them not to get on the road and start overanalyzing and playing the what if game.  What if he has trapped us?  What if he plans to get us all to Egypt just to enslave us?  What if he didn’t really forgive us at all?

 

Do you ever do that?  How many times have I left Walmart and thought, “Why did that lady look at me that way?  Did I hurt her feelings?”  Or on the way home from church, “What did she mean by that?  Maybe she is mad at me.”  The list goes on and on… food to nourish dislike, jealousy, insecurity. 

 

Over analysis after the fact…the “what if game.”  Nobody wins and I am going to take it off my list of activities!