The Undiscovered Country

What if... ?

"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."

-- Eden Phillpotts

What if you were to pretend that you were healthy, wealthy and wise? What if you were to decide to be happy, no matter what else was happening?

Take the power of 'what if...' seriously, and you will grasp the power to create a world of your own design. Everything, EVERYTHING begins in the imagination. Put it to work constructively for you.

Writers first and foremost ask the question, "What if?" before we begin any story. That's what spurs us on to write the first word and continue to the last. It tickles the imagination and motivates us to discover.

Scientific discovery works much the same way; it's not limited to the make-believe. We ask, "What if the moon is made out of cream cheese? Let's go find out!" "What if there was or is life on Mars?" Again, in order to find out if our suppositions can be proved or disproved, we must go there.

I love Romans 1:20: "For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God."

God is the ultimate of creation, the ultimate asker of "What if?"

Nothing came as a surprise to him as a result of everything he created, but that I'm sure didn't dampen the joy he felt in accomplishing the act: "Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day." (Genesis 1:31).

Anything we create, whether be with writing a new story with unique characters and even entire worlds, discovering something in nature (imagine the elation of the scientist who discovered DNA), or painting a picture, we experience that same joy of making something out of nothing.

Shakespeare got it right when Hamlet said, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

There is always more to learn, so much more to discover.

Whenever we quit asking "What if?" we will find our lives complacent and stagnant. Boring if you will.

This life is the only one I will live on this earth. To not seek out all its wonders is to squander my time here. It might even frustrate God some that I don't discover more about all he created, just as I get frustrated when people don't read the words I write.