The Certainty of Uncertainty
How sure are you about your life’s direction?
I know for sure I’m wrong about things I think are absolutely correct about. My opinion on this matter of uncertainty, sometimes described as ignorance, actually has some very good company. Socrates essentially said the same thing. Knowing things absolutely is actually an attribute of the mind of God, not the mind of man.
Now I know this sounds like a bummer -- that we can’t ever know anything completely, but this is what drives our lives. From infancy on we are explorers. We seek answers, especially about ourselves and our purpose here on this planet.
And even though there must in this life be doubt and uncertainty we are encouraged by our elders along with the workings and drives of nature to move forward, to step out and take risks. From failure itself comes a call to get up and keep trying. Looking back, most who have succeeded at anything important in life will agree that failure was one of their most difficult and important life coaches. It has its role to play in molding the classic virtues into our characters and showing at least a few paths in this life that don’t work.
It is our uncertainty, our lack of wIse self-confidence that reveal our desperate need for prayer — to connect to a higher power. When we give up on the idea that we know all of what life is all about we are then ready to knock on God’s door through prayer and to learn to listen and respond to his voice.
At first this makes no sense at all. One day, however, I believe by faith that you and I will come to appreciate that the existence of God was infinitely more real and true compared with everything we could grasp through or physical senses and imagination.
If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
1 Corinthians 8:2-3 (ESV)
The following video addresses this building of a good life while always lacking certainty from a little different but compatible perspective.