“The Mystery of God is Great”  St. Paul

“So let go, of the world you know.  There’s something waiting for you, in the Great Unknown.”  Jukebox the Ghost

We live under the illusion of certainty.

We suffer from the deception that we can and should be certain about life.

Our spiritual lives stagnate in the exercise of trying to determine the nature of God, how God works, and why.

But the truth is that life is uncertain.  We live in the Great Unknown.  And we are daily moving in and through unknowns, uncertain of what awaits us around the next corner.

Reflect for a moment on how different your life is than what you expected it to be.

Consider for a moment things that have happened to you that were unexpected, unplanned, and that you were unprepared for.

Look back on this past week and make a list of all the things that happened that surprised you.

This theme of living with life’s uncertainties, in the mystery, or what I’m calling “The Great Unknown” is really the only thing we can be certain of.  I have been made keenly aware of it primarily due to two big events that transpired for me this past week.

The first was early Sunday morning.  I had sat down to write my weekly blog when suddenly the tone from the local fire department went off on my phone.  There was a fire—a legitimate one—on a mountain top near where I live.  I dropped everything, including my plans to be at church, and responded.  I spent the entire day helping to extinguish what could’ve been a very serious forest fire.

The second occurred yesterday.  On Friday I received a message on Linked In from someone who had attended some of the events I coordinated while working for the Alzheimer’s Association.  Her mother, Ann, was in the last stages of Alzheimer’s and was actively dying.  She wanted to know if I would coordinate a memorial service.  I didn’t remember Ann, so asked if I could visit.  During the time spent with Ann, her daughter shared photos from her childhood and stories of having Ann as a mother.  It was a tender time spent in the sacred surroundings of a hospice room where a dear child of God was slowly slipping into eternal sleep—journeying into the Great Unknown we call death.

Life begins with a journey into the unknown.  As we are birthed, we are catapulted from a warm womb in which there is comfort and safety, into the shocking brightness of The Great Unknown that we will come to know as our life.  Throughout our lives, no matter how much we plan or prepare, we will constantly be confronted by matters that are completely out of our control.  From the “big” things, like disease, divorce, or death, to the “little” things like car problems, dinner invitations, or a tax refund. Though we strive to have answers, safety, and security, the truth is we are forever moving forward into an unexplored land.  Like Lewis and Clark we are daily setting forth on a journey into a land that has not been mapped for us, and in which we know not the destination—except for death, and another life.

So the challenge, the thrill, yes, even the joy in life, is to abandon the quest for stability and certainty, and to embrace The Great Unknown.  To welcome the mystery of life, the mystery of God.  To live the questions, as Rilke said, rather than insisting on the answers.  And to embrace as well The One who has come from The Great Unknown, returned, and is waiting for us there.