Certainty | Uncertainty
“The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.” ~~Anne Lamott. I saw this quote quite a few years ago and it gave me pause. Since then, I’ve run across a lot of writing about certainty and uncertainty. Oprah has used this question for years now in her interviews: “What’s one thing you know for sure?” Recently, the topic of certainty and uncertainty has come up frequently for some reason. It seems like God might be encouraging me to think about it.
I’m reading Sarah Bessey’s newest book, Field Notes for the Wilderness, and on page 63 it says, “The love of God for you is the truest thing in this universe.” That’s one of those gemstone sentences for me. It glows from the page. The certainty of God’s love is the reason I started writing the “emails of God’s love” several years ago. When I consider what I’m grateful for, the knowledge—the certainty—that God loves me is at the top of my gratitude list. Each time I send out one of those emails of God’s love, I pray each person receiving it either has or gains the certainty that God loves him or her. Now. Not when she is good enough, not when he stops doing the things he knows he shouldn’t, now. Right now. Whoever you are, whatever you’re doing, whatever you’ve done, whatever you think, God loves you.
That certainty of God’s love for me, that knowledge, seems contradictory to Anne Lamott’s quote at the beginning of this message. If certainty is the opposite of faith, that means certainty is not a good thing, right? Lamott was talking there about the certainty many people have about what is right and true, what God thinks, what the words of every verse means, what the answers and solutions are. We often get caught up in figuring things out, in finding the answers, in knowing things for sure. It is reassuring when I think I understand perfectly. I can breathe a sigh of relief and relax. I’ve got it. Sometimes it can be reassuring to think and say, “God’s got this.” But when I say “God’s got this,” what I really mean is that “God’s going to make this turn out the way I want it to turn out.” My friend who has cancer is going to beat it. My child is going to be successful and happy. Bad things are not going to happen to me or people I care about.
Sadly, “God’s got this” does not mean the outcome will be what I want. I still have to repeat my mantra, “Leave the outcome to God.” And a lot of times (most of the time??), the outcome will not be what I want. Then, I need to remind myself of another mantra, “Whatever happens, God is there.”
I like that people often say a less-worn-out word for faith is trust. When I say, “The opposite of trust is not doubt, it’s certainty,” that makes more sense to me. In fact, doubt is inherent in trust. It almost makes NO sense to say, “The opposite of trust is not doubt, it’s certainty.” I could go round and round about all these words—faith, trust, certainty, uncertainty, doubt—but instead I’ll quote some verses that come to mind when I meditate on these things, and link to a song that gets at the concept of trusting in God to be there, whatever happens.
I would love to hear your thoughts!
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
~~Psalm 139:7-12
