The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." …If you, then, will worship me, the kingdoms of the world will all be yours." …Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God throw yourself down from here… (From Luke 4:1-13)
If: a questioning word
Doubt floats across the mind and sinks into the body. Questions of conviction and about truth gallop loudly into view. Prove it! Where’s the evidence? This is what it should look like!
If you are the Son of God. This cuts to the heart of Jesus’ identity. This is rough ball stuff. Similarly for us is there an If that squirrels away at the core of who we sense we are, who we are becoming? If I were to bring this If and Jesus together what would He say to that If?
If I were stronger, fitter, more clever, better connected, show more empathy. Our ifs often push us into the future, with their urgency they cause us to look impatiently ahead to when things may be different. What is, which we are called to be present to and work from, recedes into the distance, along with gratitude perhaps.
Whatever what is is what I want. Only that. But that. Prayer, Galway Kinnell
Threshold meditation
With an ‘if’ in mind go to the threshold meditation.