We live in an age that is committed to certitude. We love the scientist who can tell us for certain where the swine flu will pop up next and how to cure it. It makes us nervous when they have sketchy ideas and hopes but no certainty.
Who knows for sure how the recession is going to end. I think we all know it will but no one can be certain. There is at best a lot of guesswork. Now, I appreciate the efforts by those seeking to bring clarity. And even getting close to knowing for sure can be comforting. But when it gets down to it, no one knows for sure.
Parenting is a challenging thing because at some point you really don’t know what you’re seeing. You want to believe what you hope to see is in fact what is going on. But one of my friends said to me once, “The greatest myth known to mankind is that one human can ever control another.” The fact is at some point all that is left is trust, not certitude.
The most educated people I have known are usually those who are more in tune with what they don’t know. One of my good friends is a psychiatrist. It is really difficult for him to say absolutely what is true on any topic. “We take it one step at a time,” he says. Yet he is the most educated person I know.
I have a friend named John who has a degree in counseling who knows exactly what’s going on with everyone and he will tell you. But he doesn’t know. Most often he does help, which is amazing. But I don’t think anyone including him really knows how or why. It is a mystery how humans are helped.
I am a church technician part of the time. Many of my comrades and clients expect certitude from me. “If you put five of these in, will we get ten out,” is the tune that is usually taken with me. But consultation is an art form. You have a pretty good idea what works but a better idea of what doesn’t and you go from there. But in the end who really knows how churches will develop. You do the best you can and then you trust.
I think we lose a lot in the meaning of worship when we fane certitude. Worship is really more accurately made around mystery. We worship God because there is so much we don’t know about Him. He cannot be manipulated. Or, fully known for that matter. The writer of the Gospel of John said it would take all the books in the world to explain Jesus. You just can’t know it all. You can know enough to know him. But you will never fully know him. All you can do is trust and worship completely.
It could be our best worship is when our lips say, “I don’t know.” Or even, “I can not nor will I have ever fully understand.” I think our world of certitude is robbing us of a life of trust. We can only fully be human when we surrender to the God who holds the course of history in His hands.
