Thursday, January 15, 2009

What if this is all there is?

Her question slapped me in the face. I'm a dreamer, imagining great things for life, hoping for the impossible, believing God can do miracles. But one day as I was dreaming out loud, a friend said it.

What if this is all there is?

The question haunts me years later. When goals seem hard to reach, when life feels mundane, when I wonder what on earth God's doing.

What if this is all there is?

Am I dwelling on fantasy? Does my preoccupation with what could be drown out what is? What if my hopes never materialize? Can I still be happy? Can I trust God with ANY outcome? Is THIS so terrible? I have a very good life, full of quality relationships. What is it in me that desires more?

If this is all there is, I need to be happy with it. I need to make the best of it and run with it and do it well. I need to be content.

What do you think?

What if this is all there is?

3 comments:

Betsy Markman said...

We know there's more, because it's built into us to know. As C.S. Lewis says (I'm paraphrasing here),

We are equipped with a hunger drive because there's such a thing as food. We are equipped with a sex drive because there's such a thing as sex. And we have a drive for the eternal because there really is such a thing as the eternal. We long for perfection because it really is there, just over death's horizon.

It's that nostalgia for what we've never known, isn't it?

Tami said...

Betsy,

Very interesting comment. You make a very good point. You'll have me pondering now!

Linda said...

How about the opposite approach?

This IS all there is.

I love THIS because I love YOU GOD. It is a tough lesson I still struggle with at times.

I have wondered if God holds onto the what if's and the could be's until we reach the point that we embrace our THIS.

I will have to think on this some more...