Uncertainties and Certainties

Traveling home from a conference in St. Louis I was listening to a podcast. Dr. Ellen Langer from Harvard was talking about “being mindful.” One of her emphases of being mindful is living with the idea that you really do not know what is to come. You may think you’ve got it figured out, but really you don’t. Life is always in a state of change.

Dr. Langer’s illustration caught me off guard. She will often start a certain class she is leading with the question “What is 1 + 1?” Of course, the expected answer is “2.” But then she asks, “What is one load of laundry plus one load of laundry?” The answer would be “One”; albeit a bigger load, but still one. “What is one wad of gum plus one wad of gum?” “One.” And “what is one cloud plus one cloud?” Again, “one.”

Her point is that the mathematical facts on which we have all been drilled often don’t correlate to real life experience. We should always be aware of the unexpected – and that is a way of being mindful.

As children of our heavenly Father, we know that this world afflicted with sin will with frequency throw something unexpected our way. There will be the cancer diagnosis, the collision when driving, and other things all the way down to the spilling of milk.

Our confidence, our way of living in hope comes from the fact that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. God has kept His promises in the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of all sin. God’s promise of the new heaven and the new earth when Jesus returns is, likewise, utterly dependable. On this certainty we rely, day in and day out. Thus, we can trust that God’s other promises for this life are also completely true. God bless your mindfulness of His truths!