Expecting good in "uncertain" times... by Jennifer Judkins
Expecting Good in “Uncertain” Times
“In these uncertain times…” How often have you heard this phrase in the past year from articles, TV news stories, advertisements, and even conversations with friends?
On the surface, it might seem like a simple way to describe our common experience. But it has become such an overused way to talk about the current pandemic era and a sense of fear about what’s to come that I wanted to think about it more deeply.
Is anything ever really certain? Consider this: If you were to turn the calendar back to January or February of 2020, were times more “certain” then than they are today? You might say, “Absolutely!” But, then just a month or so later, the entire world seemed to turn “uncertain” because of unexpected experiences surrounding the global pandemic. So, wasn’t that original “certain” feeling false since the things you counted on changed?
This leads to another question: “Is anything ever really certain?”
The certainty you can count on Certainty implies confidence that we can expect a specific outcome. My study of Christian Science shows that certainty — in fact, the only true certainty — is found in God.
Based on the Bible, Christian Science teaches that God is all, the only power that is. It also teaches that God is good. Not just a kindly figure up in the clouds, but actual good itself. God (good) is a principle — in truth, THE Principle (or law) — governing all that truly is:
• “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.” (Isaiah 45: 5)
• “…man is sustained by God, the divine Principle of being.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, 530; 5-6)
• “…He is good; his love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 6: 32)
If God is all and good, then it follows that any situation that seems fearful and uncertain comes from a mistaken belief in substance and power apart from God. It is no law unto itself and has no authority or ability to enforce a particular outcome. Therefore, any sense of certainty is always false if we look for it outside of God. Jobs, bank accounts, relationships, school activities, a social calendar, or even carefully designed life plans never offer certainty if we think of them as having the power to give or take away health, life, peace, security, or contentment. We only find certainty (the expectation of a specific outcome) in these activities if we look to them as qualities of God being expressed in our experience. And as qualities of God, their outcome is always good.
It might seem hard to think of life as certain and good if you’re facing a layoff from your job or a relationship challenge, or if you’re feeling sad and small because life isn’t turning out the way you hoped it would. But the truth is that God, as the principle of good itself, is always in control, providing the assurance that we can rely on Him to provide all that we need today and always. As it says in Jeremiah, 29: 11, “For I know he thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
Bringing the certainty of good into our lives How do we bring this expectation of good into our lives? How do we heal a sense of fear and uncertainty? By keeping the understanding of God’s nature and unmatched power firmly in our thought.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the textbook of Christian Science written by Mary Baker Eddy, offers this instruction: “Hold perpetually this thought, — that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being.” (Science and Health, p. 468)
Now, that’s something we can count on.
