If I Knew Then…
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32
If I only knew then what I know now. Have you ever said that? Have you made decisions based on incomplete knowledge of a subject or situation, and then discovered the truth about the situation and wished that you had decided in a different direction or kept your mouth shut? Since we are all human and not infallible, we have all been there. Sometimes we pray for things that God doesn’t answer as we desire, but, down, the road, we are so grateful that He didn’t answer that prayer which, if He had allowed, would have brought about consequences that would have been hurtful, dangerous, or at the least, disappointing. I am so glad that God knows what is best for each one of us. God has a HUGE advantage over us in that He is omniscient, that is, He knows the future. We do not. We make decisions, form attitudes, and forge ahead with our ideas based on what we think will be the outcome, but then sometimes discover we were way off base. That’s why prayer is so vital to making good decisions.
Had I realized as a child and teenager how important it was to study hard and make good grades, I would have made a better effort in school. I did OK. I was an average student (but who wants to be average?) who didn’t even consider going to college. But the year that I graduated from high school, a new junior college opened up in the fall in the county where I lived, and I wanted to attend. I did make it in, but my SAT scores were mediocre, nothing to “write home about” and the grades in my transcript weren’t all that impressive. Since it was a two-year school, I didn’t consider continuing on for the other two years, thus I still didn’t strive for excellence. Years later, after marrying and working, I realized that a degree would be beneficial. The two year college had become a four year school, and I enrolled, studied hard, and made the President’s List every quarter except one. The thing is, when one is young, generally speaking, he or she can’t see the big picture. Neither of my parents had any high school education because they had to quit school and work on the farms to help their families. They were wonderful parents, but they didn’t encourage me to seek a higher education, although they were very proud of my educational accomplishments. Folks don’t always realize how much things can change and how much their ideas, desires, and ambitions can change from the teenage years to the twenties and thirties.
Folks today are so caught up in daily living that they can’t look beyond the next day, particularly since we have all been through this crazy pandemic. I wonder what changes would we have made had we known the COVID-19 was going to disrupt our lives and the lives of every person on earth for over a year. We probably would have stocked up on toilet paper, non-perishable food products, activities for the kids, etc., and we likely would have watched our finances a little more closely, you know, save for a rainy day. And there sure has been a lot of rainy days over the last year! We probably would have been eating more healthy, exercising, taking vitamins, and being more careful about washing our hands. But this was something that no one saw coming. How does one prepare for something unseen?
While making decisions based on not having all the facts or experiencing unexpected events such as the pandemic affect us physically and mentally, there’s far more in our lives that affect us spiritually. Having no thought of eternity or of the cost to Christ to make salvation available to us will be devastating to those who reject God’s only plan of salvation. In the final analysis, no one will have an excuse (Romans 1:20). We might be able to excuse a bad decision concerning some earthly situation by claiming ignorance, but that will never fly when we come face to face with God’s judgment. God has made His message loud and clear to mankind. In case folks haven’t been keeping up with the words of scripture, God has been dropping hints all around us. It is pretty obvious that our world is ripe for judgment. The rich man in Luke 16:19, who died and went to hell because he did not trust God and live for Him, but was filled with pride and selfishness, surely wished that he had not shunned the truth about God and about how his lifestyle was not pleasing to His Creator. If he had it to do all over again, I am certain that he would have honored God, been a generous giver, and would have taken care of Lazarus, the beggar, who laid by his gate every day.
Once a person knows the truth, then he or she is responsible for that truth. In our world today, people are not all that concerned about truth. Lies are told so much that those who tell them begin to believe them for the truth, and then they convince others to believe the lies also. It is a noble thing to die for the truth, but why would anyone in their right mind die for a lie? Life is too short to waste time in anything but the truth. It is the truth that sets us free.