{"id":5694,"date":"2020-09-22T07:09:20","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T12:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/?p=5694"},"modified":"2020-09-22T07:09:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T12:09:20","slug":"what-if-weighs-a-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/2020\/09\/22\/what-if-weighs-a-lot\/","title":{"rendered":"‘What if’ weighs a lot!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A“What ifs” are weighing you down<\/h3>\n

I recently watched a video made by John\u00a0Barklow\u00a0with Sitka Gear. John is the head of \u201cBig Game Research\u201d for the outdoor clothing and equipment company. He has extensive knowledge on conducting extended back country hunts for elk and mule deer in some pretty inhospitable environments. In fact, before he went to work for Sitka, he spent many years training our nation\u2019s special operations community how to survive in cold weather conditions.<\/p>\n

On this particular video, John was talking about what to pack in a backpack for a back-country hunt. He said a phrase that stuck with me.\u00a0(Spec Ops guys have loads of these). He\u00a0said,\u00a0\u201cWhat if weighs a\u00a0lot\u201d<\/em>.\u202f\u202fWhat he meant was planning for all the \u201cwhat-ifs\u201d and then packing for them will make your pack heavy, weigh you down, and wear you out. \u202fAfter all, when trying to pack light they say;\u00a0\u201counces are pounds\u201d<\/em>. If you\u2019re thinking\u00a0\u201cwhat if someone needs a tractotomy\u201d\u00a0<\/em>and you pack an operating room full of equipment, you will get weighed down.\u00a0But is it necessary?\u202f You may pack for \u201cwhat if we have to live on the mountain\u201d\u00a0instead of realizing that a hunting guide with a satellite phone is close at hand\u2026you will get weighed down.<\/p>\n

Take the load off<\/h3>\n

A few days later I talked to a friend from grad school. He was contemplating a career move and in the course of our conversation, he said \u201cwhat if\u201d several times. Without even thinking about the meaning,\u00a0I said, \u201cwhat if weighs a lot.\u201d\u202f I could tell he was puzzled.\u00a0So, I explained the back story and then told him that if he keeps thinking \u201cwhat if\u201d he\u2019ll never make a decision and probably stay in a job he doesn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

We all carry emotional \u201cwhat ifs\u201d with us.\u00a0\u201cWhat if I lose my job?\u201d \u201cWhat if my kid hates sports?\u201d \u201cWhat if my wife gets cancer?\u201d \u201cWhat if I hadn\u2019t screwed up that relationship?\u201d \u201cWhat if, what if, what if?\u201d<\/p>\n

If we carry the emotional weight of the \u201cwhat ifs\u201d we will get heavy emotionally, we will get weighed down emotionally, and we will get worn out emotionally. That excess baggage can affect our relationships with our spouse, our children, our friends, and even the Lord.<\/p>\n

Give it to God<\/h3>\n

As believers, we have a sat phone we can call anytime, not just when the \u201cwhat-ifs\u201d keep us up at night. So,\u00a0lighten the load. Scripture gives us the answer.\u00a0\u201cHumble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(1 Pet. 5.7 NKJV).\u00a0You have a sat phone\u00a0(prayer)\u00a0and an amazing guide\u00a0(Spirit)\u00a0for this extended back country trip we call life. Use it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“What ifs” are weighing you down I recently watched a video made by John\u00a0Barklow\u00a0with Sitka Gear. John is the head of \u201cBig Game Research\u201d for the outdoor clothing and equipment company. He has extensive knowledge on conducting extended back country hunts for elk and mule deer in some pretty inhospitable environments. In fact, before he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,103],"tags":[88,184,185,102],"class_list":["post-5694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abiding","category-praying","tag-encouragement","tag-give-it-to-god","tag-stress","tag-weekly-devotional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}