Choosing Faith Over Worse-Case Scenarios

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but some of us deserve Olympic medals for mentally preparing for disasters that have not happened. We are truly gifted at it. And you may be shocked to hear this about me, but I live with anxiety, like I'm a worrier. Honestly, from the outside I may look calm, cool, and collected. But internally? I’m spiraling and already thinking about what could happen. It’s so bad that I’m traveling for work in a few weeks, and I literally told my husband that I might need to Amazon a parachute to keep in my carry-on. Yes. A parachute. 😂 And I'm not sure I was joking. It's not even that I have a fear of flying, I don't, not at all. I fly a lot, it's just me worrying and planning for the worse. My logic was... if the plane starts going down, I can open the emergency exit, jump out, and hopefully know how to work the parachute. Like… what on earth? Who thinks that? Yep. Me. My husband just looked at me like, “Amberly… that is not how airplanes work.” And honestly I stood there thinking… well we won’t know until we try.

Anxiety will have you preparing escape plans for situations that haven’t even happened yet. It turns our brains into full-blown worst-case scenario generators. You send a text. They don’t respond for two hours. Immediately your brain goes... “they hate me.. I said something weird... they’re telling their friends about the weird thing I said... I should probably move to another state.” All because someone was… driving. Or in a meeting. Or taking a nap. Our minds love to run straight to the worst-case scenario. You apply for the job, what if they say no? You share an idea, what if people laugh? You take a step of faith, what if you fail? We are constantly asking "what if it goes wrong?" But have you ever stopped to ask the opposite question? What if it works out?

What if the opportunity opens? What if the door you’re praying for actually swings wide open? What if God is quietly lining up things behind the scenes you can’t even see yet? We spend so much time preparing for disaster that we forget God is actually in the business of redemption. Scripture says, "now to Him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine." Ephesians 3:20 Notice it doesn’t say barely enough. It says immeasurable more. Meanwhile we’re over here imagining the worst possible outcomes like... the meeting goes terribly, the plan fails, the trip is ruined, the conversation turns awkward, the idea falls flat. Meanwhile God is like, "I was actually planning something better than what you even thought to pray for." Sometimes our imagination is working against our faith. We picture everything collapsing, while God is quietly arranging things to come together. And listen, this doesn’t mean life never goes sideways. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we planned. But even then… God still works.

Romans 8:28 reminds us:

So maybe today the question isn’t “what if everything falls apart?” Maybe the better question is

“what if God comes through?” What if the prayer is answered? What if the relationship heals? What if the opportunity grows? What if the dream actually unfolds? What if the thing you’re worried about right now ends up being the very place God shows up the most? Sometimes faith looks less like certainty… and more like refusing to assume the worst.

PS - if you see on the news in a few weeks... TSA finds a parachute in carry-on, just mind your business.

SHE Walks in Faith

Next time your mind starts running wild with worst-case scenarios, pause and ask yourself, “but what if it works out?” What if God is already working in ways you can’t see yet? Faith doesn’t mean we know the outcome. It means we trust the one who does.

🩷 Prayer

Lord, You know how quickly my mind jumps to worst-case scenarios. I imagine disasters before they even happen. Help me replace fear with faith. Remind me that You are working behind the scenes, even when I can’t see it. Give me the courage to trust You with the unknown and the confidence to believe that You are capable of more than I can imagine. Teach me to ask a better question... “what if it works out?” Amen.