Family trips cancelled. Birthday celebrations postponed. Planning for the rest of the year and 2021 practically impossible. I recently came across a tweet that read, “I’m not buying a 2021 planner until I see a trailer.”
The pandemic has brought about a loss of any sense of certainty in what tomorrow might bring. Two questions come to mind. Did we ever have an absolute sense of certainty in the pre-COVID-19 era? Did we ever have a trailer of even what the next hour, not year, might bring? And why does it seem like we need some type of certainty to live sane lives?
If I haven’t totally confused you yet, let’s try to unpack these questions together.
Let’s put COVID-19 on the side for a moment and think of the world before and after (I hope) this pandemic is over. Did we ever have a sense of absolute certainty in our lives? This post-truth era in which we live views the issue of truth not merely as relative—as in the post-modern era—but rather, as irrelevant. This is where renown author and apologist, the late Francis Schaeffer, saw we were headed when we got rid of the notion of the antithesis; namely that something and its opposite cannot both be true. Postmodernism told us that both can be true, for truth is relative. But then if truth is relative from one person to another or from one culture to another, perhaps it is wholly irrelevant. And this is precisely where we find ourselves in our post-truth era. This conclusion isn’t surprising in a world that believes that we are simply the result of random, purposeless forces that neither know nor care about truth. We are simply dancing to our DNA, as new atheist Richard Dawkins puts it.
Can certainty exist in a world where truth doesn’t? Isn’t certainty somehow related to what is true? I can be certain that if I let go of the cup I’m holding, it will fall to the ground, because the law of gravity is true. If I believe that the cup will float, I’m either in outer space or out of my mind. Why? Because what I believe, what I am certain of, is out of touch with reality, with truth. Certainty that isn’t built on truth can’t possibly be certain. It’s logically impossible!
Yet the world tries to get rid of truth and still hold on to some form of certainty. Why is that? And why are we so disturbed that COVID-19 has disrupted our plans? Because in reality we cannot live in a random world where nothing matters. We need to have some level of certainty upon which to plan and live stable, sane lives.
But if we are the result of random forces, we shouldn’t be troubled by a random future.
Maybe we aren’t. Perhaps we were created in the image of an intelligent designer who is far from random and who created a universe and humanity that are far from random. Perhaps order is an intrinsic part of our being. And maybe that is why we wish we could see a trailer for 2021. But we never have. And we never will.
This could lead us to a sense of despondency; of living to “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” But is there a better option?
My daughter loves surprises. She always wants her birthday gift to be a surprise, even if there was a particular thing she really wanted to have. Have you ever wondered why kids enjoy surprises so much? Why something so uncertain like a surprise gift can be so much more exciting than a planned one?
Because while they may be uncertain about the gift, they are certain about the giver. My children get excited about uncertain surprises because they are certain about me. They trust in my love and trust that I know them enough to pick a gift that they would enjoy.
The greatest apologist of the 21st century, the late Ravi Zacharias once said,
“You learn more about life by watching a child than you will ever learn about life by reading philosophy textbooks.”
Ravi Zacharias
Is there a lesson we can learn from children’s love of surprises? In a world that is reeling with uncertainty, is there anything certain in which we can we place our trust?
My friends, the only certain thing is not a thing but a person. I’m talking about the Creator of the universe, the One who is not only wholly unaffected by COVID-19, but who is so beyond space and time that He is wholly unaffected by every uncertain thing in our past, present, and future. And the good news is that even though He is so beyond space and time, He entered into our space and time at a particular time in history in the person of Jesus Christ. We had no way of going to Him, so He came to us.
And so my friends, no matter how uncertain these times may be, with no foreseeable end, we can place our trust in the One who is fully in control and who loved us enough to die on our behalf, so that we would remain in eternal relationship with Him. Just think about it: You are invited by the only certain being to the only certain relationship that is beyond all the constraints of the uncertain times in which we live. And this is not Sci-Fi. It’s reality.
One of the Biblical writers, the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes these words:
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1
The words assurance and conviction sure sound like certainty! So faith is not some blind whimsical notion! It is being certain of things that we hope for. And you know what, the word “hope” in the original Greek is “elpis” which means expecting what is certain!
But how can faith in the unseen be certain?
Because, just like little children, our faith is not in the uncertain gift, but in the certain giver.
Our faith and hope are not fleeting emotional constructs that we hold on to when we have nothing else to hold on to. Our hope is in the person of Jesus Christ and we hold on to Him because He is the only certain thing to hold on to in a very uncertain world.