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Coffee And... What If?
by Louise Bergmann DuMont (Louise's bio)
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My kids and I used to play a game called “What if…” What if the color of the sun was a deep lime green and the grass was an outlandish shade of flamingo pink? What if everyone in the world ate ice cream for breakfast but got asparagus for dessert? What if Mom had never heard of coffee and instead developed a taste for pureed carrots and buttermilk? (I shudder at the mere thought!)
Most of these little mind stretches took place during the short drive to and from some sports practice or school meeting. It seemed as if those twenty minutes could turn the world upside-down. Our troubles evaporated on snow laden tropical beaches and our hopes soared into cotton candy clouds laced with raspberry jam. My oldest son's “What if…” usually centered on sports. (What if I got a hundred goals in the hockey game and we went on to the finals?) My youngest son's “What if…” was more likely to focus on home and family. (What if I grew up to be bigger than my brothers? – His now six-foot-four stature just goes to show that some dreams do come true!) But no one enjoyed this game more than my second son, Alan. Each “What if…” was an adventure into the unexplored and it was to be relished and rivaled only by the next game of “What if…”
Then, reality struck our game. It occurred while Alan and I discussed a special project he was working on for his second grade GT class.
“What if I could build a car that ran on track and was powered only by a person's mind. One that you wouldn't need to use your hands and feet to run?” he asked.
“That would certainly be interesting,” I countered. “It would take a lot of track to go to all the places that people wanted to go though. Why do you think people would want to build a car like that?”
“Well, Rodger won't be able to drive when he is a teenager,” Alan said, referring to his cousin who fights a degenerative muscular disease. “I thought that inventing a car where he wouldn't need to use his arms and legs would make him feel better.”
“Hum…” I replied unable to say more without letting my tears spill out.
Alan had the right idea. Take what you know is a problem today and try to fix it. Don't' fret about what might be, or spend too much time dreaming about what might have been. Too many people lament the “What ifs…” of the world. A young bride worries that it might rain for her outdoor wedding, a middle-aged man laments the loss of speculated funds many years after they are gone, or a couple frets what will happen when their toddler reaches his teenage years.
Sometimes we spend so much time concentrating on the “What If's…” that we forget to do something about the “What Are's…”
Is God calling you to spend a few hours working at a soup kitchen, making phone calls to lonely friends or wiping runny noses at a daycare center? Is he asking you to work with your youth program, volunteer at your public library or teach an adult to read? Are spending more hours watching sitcoms and dreaming about the “What if's” than you are building relationships that will open doors for eternity? Ask God to show you “What IS” and how you can serve Him.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:10
Copyright 2002, Louise Bergmann DuMont. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
| About Louise Bergmann DuMont: Louise Bergmann DuMont is the facilitator of the North Jersey Christian Writer's Group and a recent winner of CWG's 2001 conference scholarship. She has written for numerous local periodicals, journals and newspapers and recently began expanding her horizons to include more widely circulated publications. Louise's interests include gifted/learning-disabled children and fiction/fantasy writing. She is married and has three sons. E-mail Louise |
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