Embracing Uncertainty

I knew the answers. My systematic theology was growing ever tighter and I knew the answers to life’s tough questions. I read the books, listened to the podcasts, and went to the conferences to be certain that my answers were the right ones.

As I look back on that period of my life, I am thankful that my time spent reading and listening established a knowledge base that God would use. However, I remember what it felt like living behind a facade of certainty. The fact is, I was afraid. I was afraid of what might happen if I didn’t know the answer and worse, I was afraid of how I would be viewed if I asked the wrong questions.

Through life’s circumstances, God began to show me that my quest to be certain about all the answers of life was actually serving to weaken my faith in Jesus, not strengthen it. That isn’t to say that learning is wrong, but I had been building my faith on my knowledge and not on Jesus. Additionally, I had been missing out on the richness of life in the larger body of Christ.

The breadth of Christian expression in theology, worship and philosophy is so delightfully rich and has led me into the health of intellectual humility — to realize that I can’t know everything. Embracing uncertainty while exploring the richness of Jesus will only serve to grow my faith in him. For he must increase and I must decrease.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the richness of your Church body and thank you for allowing us to experience its variety of expressions across this world. When we are uncertain, may we find ourselves surrounded by you, in whom all things are certain.

Throughout This Day: Thank Jesus often that he has called you into a growing relationship with him, and that you will be getting to know him better throughout your life.