{"id":1660,"date":"2021-08-18T11:46:49","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T15:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2021-08-19T07:51:40","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T11:51:40","slug":"living-with-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/living-with-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"Living with Uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a quote, I believe from an Episcopal confession of sin, \u00a0that says “We are self-deceived and strangers to the truth.”<\/p>\n

I like to be certain.
\nIt comforts me.
\nNumbs me
\nto \u00a0ever-changing\u00a0realities.
\nBut we all seek certainty\u00a0at times
\nbecause the world is so large
\npeople are so unpredictable
\npolitics are so complex.
\nAt their best
\nreligions wrestle with questions
\nwhose answers are beyond our imagining.
\nAt their worst,
\nthey offer false and concrete
\ncertainty.<\/p>\n

Most of the time,
\nmost of us,
\nwalk in the world content
\nwith the ‘knowing’ we have
\nhowever incomplete
\nhowever unchallenged
\nWe ground ourselves
\nin the rhythms of
\nwaking and sleeping
\nworking and playing
\nconnecting and disconnecting.
\nUntil the times
\nwhen our unknowing
\noverwhelms us
\nand we realize
\nthat we are strangers to the truth
\nand maybe even
\nself deceived.<\/p>\n

Climate change.
\nPolitical turmoil
\nin a land\u00a0that once\u00a0felt knowable.
\nThe fall of nations to terror,
\nthe subjugation of women
\nthrough sexual violence
\nthe rise of authoritarianism,
\nrampant disease,
\neconomic uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Confronted with\u00a0our ignorance,
\nthat what once we thought
\nmay no longer be true,
\nthat what once we believed
\nhas shown itself false,
\nwe combat our fear,
\nby clinging
\nto what we think we know
\nbecause\u00a0certainty
\nis our last refuge.<\/p>\n

So let us pursue
\nsomething other than
\nthe numbness of ‘certainty’.
\nThe challenges of our time offer
\nboth despair
\nand hope.
\nDeath and life.
\nWhen we are confronted
\nby ambiguity
\nlet us\u00a0choose hope
\nand let us choose life.
\nNot because we know
\nany damn thing
\nbut because
\nwe are willing to risk trust.<\/p>\n

This is where
\nfaith and certainty\u00a0collide.
\nChoose the path of trust
\nnot because we are convinced
\nof some immutable truth
\nbut because we choose
\nknowledge beyond facts
\nrelationship beyond comprehension
\nand the wild goodness of the Sacred.<\/p>\n

The writer of the book of Deuteronomy said, \u00a0“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.”\u00a0(30:19)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a quote, I believe from an Episcopal confession of sin, \u00a0that says “We are self-deceived and strangers to the truth.” I like to be certain. It comforts me. Numbs me to \u00a0ever-changing\u00a0realities. But we all seek certainty\u00a0at times because the world is so large people are so unpredictable politics are so complex. At … Continue reading Living with Uncertainty<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,5,8,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1660"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1664,"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660\/revisions\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}