What If...?

   The other day I picked up our mail from the box. A lot of it was "throwaways", but there was one publication that I kept for some reason.

   This magazine was the Winter/Spring 2016 issue of Journey, a publication of Carson-Newman University up in Jefferson City, TN.

   Now, I know of the school, even been on the campus, but I cannot remember getting this before. I know folks in my life who have gone there, but neither Mayre or I have any personal relationship with the college at all. I'm not sure how it ended up in my hands.

   But here it was, and I set it aside to look at. One picture caught my eye..

   And I had to watch the video that included this shot.

   The story of Nola Isobe gripped me, and I looked at that video again this morning.

   Briefly, this lady had grown up dirt poor, in the mountains of NC, in a house with only cold water, with no bathroom inside. She started school with no shoes to wear. Her teacher bought her a pair of yellow tennis shoes, and that teacher's love started her on the way to her Doctor's degree in Education.

   You can watch the video here:

   http://www.cn.edu/news?view=1110

   But, as I listened again, two words came to my mind, and in the form of one question:

   "WHAT IF...?"

   Those words are obvious when it comes to that teacher and her relationship with that particular student, but I began to think of how they apply to my life, past, present and future.

   Now, a crossroad is formed from those words. Decisions in life that involve the taking of one of two paths.

   But there are also two paths in the application of what to look at when looking back..

   What if I had...?

   What if I had not...?

   But I did not want to dwell in the past. There are plenty of answers that spring from that question in my 80 years, some that I remember fondly, and some that I would like to forget.

   How about today, right now, what can I do to insure a smile on my face and someone else's in the future, the days that stretch out to an indeterminate date in God's timetable?

   The present is the only time I have in my hand today.

   What if my choices were concerned with the well-being of another?

   What if my opportunities and actions were rid of selfishness?

   What if I asked God for more of His wisdom and caring?

   What if I listened, really listened, to Him and others?

   Our lives are filled each day with paths branching off from many crossroads.

   It is never too late to do Right...

   "WHAT IF...?"