“We’re living in uncertain times.”
This was a common refrain in news broadcasts 6 years ago when Covid-19 was beginning to spread around the world. At the time, many people were getting sick. Death tolls were in the headlines. Fear was the dominant instrument used in propaganda to bring some semblance of control and order in our society. The confusion sown at the time was pronounced, making it difficult to discern the truth from fiction. Uncertainty abounded. Governments enforced policies affecting numerous people’s lives materially, and mostly in a negative way. Day-to-day life changed for just about everyone on the planet, causing many to not know what to do next. People made all kinds of wild speculations about what the future would hold, but nobody really knew what would happen. The future was not clear.
I raise this memory as an example of what collective uncertainty feels like. When the future is hard to predict, it can be a challenge to know what to do. We face uncertainty today as well. The advent of AI is changing the landscape of how work is done, with many predicting massive job loss and unemployment. Nobody really knows what will happen, but sensational speculations abound. War in the Middle East escalates instability in the region, putting the world’s nations on edge. These are current occurrences at a global scale. Individually, on a personal scale, we deal with uncertainty too. Sudden changes in life circumstances can alter the course of our future in a moment, sometimes at a global scale, and other times individually. Uncertainty is a fact of life.
What are you going to do?
When faced with a choice for which any decision will lead to an unpredictable outcome, how do you make up your mind about what to do? If AI is taking over the world, threatening to steal your job, what are you going to do about it? When other kinds of calamities in your life disrupt your plans, how do you make decisions?
One way to make decisions is by trying to achieve an outcome, focusing on that goal, and modifying your behavior to reach that outcome. The ends justify the means. This is the approach that fear-mongering promotes. Those who claim to have solutions will say things to the effect of, “If you want this outcome, do this, not that.” They prey upon the fear of uncertainty, making empty promises for the stability of a certain and comfortable outcome.
However, focusing our efforts to control our outcome is a trap. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-16). The Bible is clear that we can do nothing to save ourselves. The circumstances of our lives are firmly in the grasp of the living God. He is the One who brings about the outcomes in our lives — not we. To get into a way of thinking that presupposes we can control our outcomes is doomed to cause compound problems. If the outcome is the fixed objective, and our behaviors are the variable that changes, we would be bound to deviate from righteous behavior in submission to God. This is not what God wants.
The Bible instructs us consistently to practice righteousness (compare Matthew 5:6; 1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:7,10). This is the superior way to make decisions.
When we accept that it is impossible for us to do a good job of controlling the outcomes in our lives, it takes a lot of pressure away. We must trust God to direct our paths, knowing that He is the One who will give us exactly what we need. Our work is to listen to Him, focusing our efforts on being profitable servants to Him. Living this way keeps our behavior as the fixed constant, leaving the outcome as the variable. This places uncertainty into God’s control, not ours. In this way of making decisions, we can be satisfied inherently in doing what is right in the eyes of God. We don’t have to worry about the uncertain future.
When Daniel and his friends were in captivity, they faced life-threatening uncertainty. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego had their lives threatened if they refused to worship the god of Nebuchadnezzar. But rather than try to control the outcome of that situation, compromising their convictions to save their lives, they chose to not waver. “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up’” (Daniel 3:16-18). Note how they submitted to the Will of God, knowing that the outcome of their lives was in His hands. They had faith that holding fast to righteousness would yield the best result. And it did. Following this moment, they were indeed thrown into a burning fiery furnace, but their lives were miraculously saved.
Uncertainty prevails in our lives. As the time of Jesus Christ’s return draws near, the magnitude of uncertainty will increase even more. Everyone will need to answer the question posed to them, “What are you going to do?” Many in the world will attempt to take matters into their own hands to control their outcome. But this way is corrupt. The right way in the eyes of God is live according to righteousness, directed by virtuous principles. This makes uncertainty powerless in its fight against us, placing God firmly in control.