I am (not) Certain

6 A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.  - Isaiah 40:6-8

Uncertainty. It is a feeling that we all have. A kind of crawling of the skin. A “when is the other shoe going to drop” feeling. It is, or at least can be a very scary feeling. I remember the feeling we had during the Pandemic. It was the day everything locked down. There was a lot of fear and uncertainty about what was next. We did not know the chaos that was to come!

The great 20th Century Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s work On Certainty, provided an insight into our problem. Wittgenstein said that we are certain with many things, but in the end, it is our certainty. In other words, what is certain for us may not be so for others. In a sense we are all like children believing our parents. As children we had an infallible faith in our parents. No matter what they did or said we believed them. As we grew older we were able to see that they too make mistakes, because they suffer from the same problem that all people do: we are finite people trying to live in a mysterious world. As the Teacher in Ecclesiastes says we are all “chasing after the wind” or trying to grasp at air. 

The truth is we may not recognize our uncertainty because we are good at distracting ourselves from uncertainty. That is a good thing! Thankfully there are distractions like sports (for me at least). However, during the first weeks and months of the pandemic, there were no balls bouncing or being tossed. All sports venues across the world were empty. The distractions were gone.

Because of that, uncertainty creeps its ugly, viper-like head up from the depths. But, like a snake in your garage that you did not see, it was there regardless of your ability to see it. Only the boxes that hid it are now removed. The pandemic removed the boxes of distraction and now doubt and uncertainty take its place. But they do not get the last word. 

Soren Kierkegaard said that doubt comes into the world through faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Think about that! The evidence of things not seen! Faith, therefore, is not so much a certainty as it is our hope. Certainty is built on a shoddy foundation, because we are human beings incapable of being certain in all we do. We can have our certainty, but at some point it is sure to crumble and fall. Faith, however, is built on the unbreakable foundation of hope. Hope does not disappoint! If we have hope, our faith will not shatter and we can live with the uncertainty of life! 

As Isaiah 40:6-8 says we are like the grass and flowers of the field. Here today and gone tomorrow. However, God’s word remains forever! That is the good news: God gets the last word! So my friends, I encourage you to remain strong in your faith and hope against all uncertainty. Uncertainty is not an evil in itself, but it is something we must live with as humans. That is why the life of faith is the life of freedom. Faith is not searching for certainty, but for something greater. Something beyond ourselves and this world and it is built on that foundation of hope. A hope that is unbreakable and unmovable regardless of the chaos in the world.

Zac