Certainty in Uncertainty

The world is an interesting place right now, more so than I’ve ever seen it.

And by interesting, I mean completely bizarre. Ridiculous. Wild. Senseless.

All of the peculiar words, and maybe even a little bit of the alarming ones too. Everyone is either shutting themselves off from the world entirely or sitting on the edge of their seats dying to know what happens next. I’m not sure where I fit on this scale. If it’s possible, maybe I’m right there in the middle. Hiding behind closed doors, curiosity building up in my bones soon to get the best of me.

I’ve always had trouble with the unknown. I hate knowing there are things out there that I don’t understand. That I can’t understand. It’s simply not possible to. The fact is, we’re not supposed to know everything, even if we want to. Even if we feel like we need to. We serve and all-knowing God for a reason. He is the creator of all. He’s in all. He is all.

I consider the unknown a test, one that I find myself barely passing sometimes. God tests us every day, sometimes without our knowledge. He’s testing our trust in Him. Our faith. He’s asking us if we can accept the fact that there is an abundance of unknown out there that will only ever be known by Him, and trust that it has to be this way for a reason. If we are meant to know He’ll ensure that we do, always knowing what we need before we do ourselves.

This is hard for me. I’ve found myself looking up at God, uttering the words, “Can’t you just tell me why?”

I’m sure you’ve gone through similar motions.

Why didn’t I get that job my family desperately needed?

Why haven’t you healed me yet?

Why haven’t you answered my prayers?

Why couldn’t you save that person’s life?

Why won’t you stop this pandemic?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Your frustration goes through the roof, and suddenly you’ve become a toddler again. You’re the child asking your parents an endless list of questions, trusting they have all the world’s answers.

And there’s that word again. Trust.

It’s here where we have to be careful. Because it’s here where we make the choice. Do

we trust Him or not?

It took me a minute (or maybe a lot of minutes) to realize this came from Him. It was His voice in my head. He was asking me, “Do you trust me?”

It was the fastest yes I’ve ever said. Though it still frustrates me, I understand that the importance isn’t in the why, at least not for my part in the equation.

For me, the importance is this: I don’t know why this had to happen, but I don’t need to. All I need to do is decide what I’m going to do about it.

• Proverbs 3: 5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

Take this back to current conditions of the world. There are those that are scared to literal death, and there are those making TP related jokes. But there’s no denying the unity in the fact that everyone has asked “why” at least once during all of this. And that’s fine. It’s normal. But I think we need to change the question.

Rather than asking God why He’s doing this, ask Him (or maybe even yourself) what He’s trying to tell us.

He’s trying to get our attention.

He shut down our schools to remind us our hope is not in a good education.

He shut down our jobs to remind us our hope is not in money.

He shut the doors of our churches to remind us our hope is not just in a good church service.

I know that last part sounds bad but hear me out. I think that the church has become a little too comfortable with routine. We get up every Sunday morning, put on our Sunday-Best, and head to church. We sing some songs and listen to the preacher. We cry a little, maybe shout a little. We pray for each other at the altar. Then it’s over and we’re headed to the restaurant.

Before we know it, it’s Monday and we’ve forgotten the title of the preacher’s message, or what he preached on at all. The weekend is over, and we’ve transitioned from our church routine into our work routine. And life goes on.

What’s wrong with this picture? We’ve become content with a situation God never intended us to be in. And the thing is, sometimes we don’t even realize we’ve done it. When something becomes so regular and habitual, it becomes easy to do without thinking twice about it. It’s like breathing or blinking, both of which are actions our bodies do throughout the entire day, almost without our knowledge.

The point of all that was to say this. We have found ourselves on a dangerous path, the kind of danger that sneaks up on you. It’s because we’ve become a generation that would rather have a good church service than a real, genuine relationship with God.

Think about it. What is God doing right now? He’s shaking us out of our routine. He’s literally pushing every distraction out of our path, until there’s nothing left but Him.

God doesn’t just want our Sunday-Best. He wants us. He wants a heart that is completely devoted to Him and His kingdom. I think He’s been searching for this a lot lately, searching for our willingness to truly know Him. But maybe He hasn’t been finding it.

None of this means having good church is a bad thing, because it definitely is not. We just can’t rely on a good church service a couple times a week to save us. Being saved is a daily process that requires a relationship with God.

The world is in unfamiliar territory right now, at least for most of us. We’re scared. We’re confused. We don’t know what’s going to happen next. But God does. You see, He as the ability to use the gravest of situations for His own purpose.

Use this time of uncertainty to seek Him. If you listen long enough, you’ll hear Him calling you into His will. You’ll find that there’s a comfort in that.

A wise man once told me that to find the unknown will of God, we have to start with the known. Use what you know to find what you don’t.

Maybe that can be a little certainty in this uncertainty.