The Courage to Live With Uncertainty…

Each day brings its own news, its own uncertainties and decisions. Life is never altogether controllable or predictable or safe or certain. We all have to adjust to changes. We all have to learn to live with some uncertainty. We all have to acquire the courage to live life as it is, and not as we wish it were – for no day perhaps proceeds precisely as was planned.

(Few things in life proceed precisely as planned. Some experiences are better than we thought they would be. Some are more disappointing than we thought they would be – but few days, few lives, are lived precisely as planned.) Every phone call, every unopened letter, every message from every source carries with it some uncertainty. We never know what the next phone call will bring or the next letter we open, or the next newscast. But we cannot, and must not, sit and waste life with waiting and worrying about everything that could happen or everything that might happen.

We have to have faith; we have to have courage – as if every scene and every set of circumstances were posted with this familiar sign: “Subject to change without notice.” And we cannot afford to let the good times, and the happy times, be overshadowed with the worry that they won’t last. A man must be grateful for what he has, for what he has had, for what he can count on, and not be despondent or ungrateful for that he doesn’t have or for what he can’t count on.

“Courage,” observed Samuel Johnson, “is the greatest of all the virtues.” And when asked why, he answered, “Because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.”

This is a time for courage, and for faith: for faith that, besides all the changing scenes and uncertainties, there are eternal certainties, and eternal truths; for faith in the mercy and justice and goodness of Him who gave us life, and who gave it meaning – and who gives us strength to see it through, with purpose, and with limitless possibilities, if we will take it on His terms, and do the best we can with the kind of courage that takes both certainties and uncertainties as they come – with gratitude for what we can count on, and faith for what we can’t count on.