Uncertainty and Advent

As a human species, our brains have a lot of trouble dealing with uncertainty.

Without getting into the biology of it, the bottom line is that our brains, and our nervous systems really struggle to cope with the experience of uncertainty.

And yet, uncertainty is all around us.

Even worse, as technology and education drive our awareness to new heights, and postmodernism calls into question the validity of all beliefs and thought systems, there is even more uncertainty for us to encounter. It's not so much that the world is becoming a more dangerous place. But rather, that we are increasingly aware of how uncertain everything about life is.

It turns out that consciousness is a big part of the problem. Most animals don't know they are going to die, at least not until perhaps their last moments. But as Tolstoy pointed out, we humans uniquely face a lifetime of both the certainty that we will die, but the uncertainty as to when, and how, and that this reality is enough to drive us to madness.

So in response, probably all of us construct false certainty in our lives. Rigid values, political views, or complete immersion in a particular interest or cause often play this role. Or more simply many of us find things to preoccupy our attention enough to keep from thinking about the bigger uncertainties of life. If we can only stay busy enough.  Or, if we can create orderly little worlds in which we appear to be in control, we can stave off the dread and anxiety that comes with being human.

A typical religious response to this dilemma has been to provide a dogmatic belief system that gives humans a false sense of certainty, but at least enough "pretend" certainty that life can seem manageable again.

Sometimes the most radical and extremist versions of religion are seen in settings were anxiety and uncertainty are the highest. But whether it's ISIS or Christian conservatives, or even the seemingly more benign constructs most of us engage on a daily basis, these forms of false certainty always end up enslaving us.

As I've been reflecting on the meaning of Christmas to me personally this week, it's struck me that Jesus doesn't come to provide certainty. For faith is the belief in things unseen, the reality that isn't proven or certain. Yet many of us are given the idea that God and our version of religion are certain, undeniable truths, that will answer those deep nagging fears that come with the consciousness that humans have.

So if Jesus doesn't give us certainty, what does He bring?

I think that the meaning of Jesus' life gives us a context in which to re-frame uncertainty.

Jesus changes the meaning of uncertainty.

For merely human animals, uncertainty means danger, because uncertainty subverts our ability to avoid whatever danger lurks out there. But for spiritual humans - beings that can transcend their humanity - the very definition of danger, and the meaning of death are changed through Jesus.

We may not be certain about what lurks around the corner - but whatever it is, it is not ultimately dangerous. In Jesus, death is defeated, and we are rescued from the fear of death. In Jesus, the world is not governed by a hostile angry god, but rather one that loves it, and is rescuing it.

As Dallas Willard put it, a world governed by a loving God, is ultimately a safe place.

We can't be certain of what will happen. Likely there will be suffering, and evil, and darkness, and even times of feeling profoundly separated from God. But the meaning of suffering, evil, darkness, separation and alienation - the meaning of all of them changed in this reality that Christmas ushers in.

So may you this advent, prepare yourself to recognize and embrace this reality. May you be ready to receive the gift of having Jesus born anew in your life. May you be freed from the power of uncertainty, and from the enslavement of false certainty. May your uncertainty be transformed by this miraculous event of heaven coming to earth at Christmas.