Uncertainty

Have you or do you read My Utmost for His Highest?

It's good today.

in it's entirety...

Gracious Uncertainty

Apr292010

. . . it has not yet been revealed what we shall be . . . —1 John 3:2

Our natural inclination is to be so precise— trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next— that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we do not put down roots. Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were in that circumstance?” We cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never been.
Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life— gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God — it is only believing our belief about Him. Jesus said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” (Matthew 18:3 ). The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what He is going to do next. If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, “. . . believe also in Me” (John 14:1 ), not, “Believe certain things about Me”. Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in— but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him.

A second look at an unknown commodity

Through twitter i stumbled on the Harvard Business Review. Not sure why it hasn't been on my reading list in the past, but it is now.

Today i read an article about "confirmation bias" which is the human predisposition to look for ways it is right. In other words, I am always looking for the evidence that i'm right and i don't seem to see the evidence when i'm wrong.

The article was talking about how expectations affect behaviour and outlook.

It got me thinking about all of the teams that need to be built and invested in around the church that I work at.

I've only been here for 3 or 4 months but i'm already subconsciously putting people into categories with regards to what I can expect from them.

I should also tell you that already, there have been a number of occasions when someone has approached me and demonstrated capacities and aspirations that far exceeded what I had expected or more truthfully predicted.

I'm not embarrassed to say that I make predictions about people. We all do. All of our experience in leadership and teams, added to our history, however brief, with people shapes our predictions as to how people will perform in a given area.

But all of our experience in leadership and history with people can also negatively skew our expectations as well.

I'm going to work more on inspiring aspiration and developing people instead of simply predicting outcomes.

Predictions will no doubt take us down a shorter road, and we can expect to see all sorts of signage confirming our choice of paths but I can't help but wonder where that other road might lead.