Michael Sprague - clarity?

 UNCERTAINTY? FEELING OUT OF CONTROL?

Is it your kids? Health? Inflation and how to pay the bills? A big decision? Work? Obsessed over politics? Conflicts? Thinking that more certainty would make life a lot easier?

Perhaps having certainty is not all it is cracked up to be. Perhaps having certainty about your circumstances will not make your life everything you dream it might. Life on this side will have unpredictability and uncertainty. Perhaps we need to learn the secret of negotiating these realities.

Today I heard about a research study where if subjects were told they had a 50% chance that they might get a painful electrical shock, they then experienced more elevated worry, fear, and anxiety than people who were told there was a 100% chance. As one concluded, “You would think it would be good news you might not get shocked, but it is the uncertainty even more than the pain we wrestle with. This is a problem because we live in an uncertain world … Do not look for certainty, look for God.”

James says, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-16)

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

I tell this magnificent story regularly. A brilliant guy traveled to the "house of the dying" in Calcutta. He desperately wanted Mother Teresa to pray he had CLARITY for his life. Discerning his condition she said firmly, "No, I will not do that. Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of." He commented that she always seemed to have clarity. She laughed, "I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So, I will pray that you TRUST GOD." 

Brilliant!

 

Many times, people want CLARITY/CERTAINTY when their utmost need is to TRUST. Sometimes "real or supposed clarity/certainty" leads to the feeling of "I'm in Control" which leads to "I don't need God for a while" ... at least until the next crisis. It is not wrong to pray for CLARITY as long as it does not crowd out the daily pleasure and adventure of abiding in and walking with the Lord. So Bet the Farm on God today and enjoy the ride without fear or worry. Your day is in no way dependent on whether you have clarity or not.