The Spirituality of Mystery

The Myth of Certainty

Life is mysterious and certainty is not possible. This doesn’t mean that we can’t have a firm faith and trust in our loving God. But such a confidence doesn’t preclude painful twists and turns that come our way as we make our life journey. Daniel Taylor underlines this point in his excellent book The Myth of Certainty when he pens:

The goal of faith is not to create a set of immutable, rationalized, precisely defined and defendable beliefs to preserve forever. It is to recover a relationship with God. He offers us a person and a relationship; we want rules and a format. He offers us security through risk; we want safety through certainty. He offers us unity and community; we want unanimity and institutions. And it does no good to point fingers because none of us desires too much light. All of us want God to behave Himself in our lives, to touch this area but leave that one alone, to empower us here but let us run things ourselves over there.” (Daniel Taylor)

p.s. I remember reading in Scott Peck’s book A World Waiting To Be Born that he considered this work by Taylor to be one of the best religious books written in a decade! High praise indeed from another skillful writer.