Unleashed – As You Go – Pray
“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” I John 3:2
“Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life: gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it should be rather an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God.”
I enjoyed reading Oswald Chamber’s devotion the other morning and especially the title, “The Graciousness of Uncertainty.” I was greatly struck by how much I needed certainty in my life yet seldom could I say with certainty what certainty I had in my life. Growing up on a farm in Oklahoma I realized there was a rhythm of certainty others may not experience in their growing-up years. Life on a farm allows you to comfortably settle into a predictable routine; a certainty of life. I could almost guess I am not alone in the need for certainty. This pandemic we find ourselves living through right now has taken countless lives but also has caused us to no longer live a settled, certain life.
I came to radically understand what leaving your comfort zone really meant on that early morning flight out of Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City. Connie and I boarded our plane that morning, leaving Oklahoma for our new home in Bophutatswana. There was uncertainty pulsating through every fiber of my body; leaving family, friends and the known; for a country whose name I could barely pronounce. Over the next five years, I came to understand ever so slightly the “gracious uncertainty of life” that God gives us.
I wouldn’t trade the uncertainty of those first days in Africa for anything. The morning I didn’t think I could take another day in this dry and desolate place, I walked out of the front door of our house in Mmabatho to see God’s signature in the sky. The most perfect rainbow took my breath away, a sight that even today is etched deep into my soul. Normally rainbows come after a rainstorm but God doesn’t always work normally. Bophuthatswana was in the midst of a dust producing drought. I’m sure there is a scientific explanation for a rainbow without rain but for me it was God’s signature to me that He had me secure in the midst of uncertainty.
That first term we would still face frustrations of living in a different culture, experience the hurt of a miscarriage, overwhelming joy of two of our children’s births, the gut-wrenching despair at the near death of our son, civil unrest, and normal first term adjustments. However, I could settle into the uncertainty because I could trust in the certainty of God. He brought into our lives friends who still hold a special place in our hearts, ministry that encouraged us, and a rhythm of life that echoed God’s grace in our lives.
Chambers continued in his devotion, “If we are only certain in our beliefs, we get dignified and severe and have the ban of finality about our views’ but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.” I truly don’t know what a day may bring but I do trust God. I can now say with certainty that I am learning to live in every uncertain day with an “expression of breathless expectation.”
“For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.” Psalm 62:5-7
Who needs a comfort zone when you can live in God’s unexpectedly glorious creation!
God is great,
