OK To Be Uncertain

Been considering recently that an aspect of humility is the willingness to admit that we don't have a lot of answers to perplexing and difficult issues. I had a button in my early 20's attached to my jacket that read, "Onward through the fog." I should still be wearing it if I knew where it was...

It is a type of intellectual humility to bow down before the unknown and confess that we have many more questions than answers. Three children from one family killed in a car wreck recently in our area. What can be known why a tragedy strikes like this--but spares the rest of us to live another day.

We all see through a glass darkly as Paul writes. A man like Paul, who was the recipient of divine revelation, admitting his own ignorance, is refreshing. There are doctrines we must be sure of, yet much certainty in things not able to really be known is foolhardy and even dangerous. I like to have answers but am learning (even at 48 years of age) that I have much to learn and it is wise to admit it.

Better to be OK with saying, I don't know. I may never know. And that is honest. And OK.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shake the Dust: Anis Mojgani

Pslam 90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." I am not real certain where Anis Mojgani comes from belief-wise. Cats like him tend to be synchrestic spiritually rather than Christ-centered. Yet, this poem captures the spirit of Jesus. What this poem also needs is grace....we shake off sin and mortality and take on Christ and immortality. This is for the fat girls This is for the little brothers For the former prom queen And for the milk crate ball players This is for the school yard wimps And the childhood bullies that tormented them Shake the dust. This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them. This is for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns And for the men who have to hold down 3 jobs, Simply to hold up their children. For the nighttime schoolers And for the midnight bike riders trying to fly Shake the dust. For the two year olds who cann...
Read more

Copenhagen Chronicles: The Corner Where Kierkergaard Fell Ill

Image
  The barista at the coffee shop said this is where Kierkegaard fell ill on the street and was taken to hospital. And died several days later. A fitting conclusion to my trip. Soren enjoyed his coffee. With an obscene amount of sugar. I think it helped fuel his prodigious literary output. Nearly 40 books in 13 years. I doubt I’ll read the 34 books I have of his in 13 years. Because reading his books is tied into the Bierkergaard podcast, it is a consistent and purposeful yet peaceful walk.  If I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t do it. Everything else about building a platform must be the cart being pulled by the horse of joy. Not the other way around.  Tomorrow I fly out. Not sure I’ll ever be back unless the podcast becomes a bigger net. There are plans in Copenhagen to advance Kierkegaard scholarship at a more advanced level, and if God has a plan to have me be a part of it, I’ll be back. I have no overweening ambition. I really don’t.  I’d like to thank all of you here...
Read more

Thomas Jefferson & Jesus

Image
I was reminded today, by a friend's post on Facebook, that it is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. So, I had a little party on my own of watching two documentaries on him through Netflix Instant. There is much I admire about Jefferson, there is much I dislike. He is polarizing figure. Besides the owning of slaves, the second most odious character flaw was his castration of the New Testament . See my slice of his slicing. Live by the razor, die by the razor. I did learn a cool new word call Amphiboligism which means ambiguity. The arrogance of Jefferson is astounding as if he had a more accurate vantage point of Jesus after 17 centuries than Jesus's own contemporaries and colleagues. In an empirical and scientific sense, he is at a considerable disadvantage in his postulations. When my wife and I visited Monticello on our Honeymoon, the most memorable moment there --besides my downing a can of Pringles all at once (in my own version of the "Pursuit of Happiness" w...
Read more