June 3 – Living Without Certitude

Gregg’s Reflection

For much of my life, I thought faith meant being sure — about my beliefs, my theology, my place in God’s plan. Certainty felt safe. It gave me boundaries, a team to belong to, and a sense of control. But over time, I began to notice something: the more I clung to certainty, the less open I became to God’s surprises.

In business and ministry, I was often the one with a plan, a strategy, and a clear outcome in mind. That approach worked in meetings, but it didn’t translate well to the spiritual life. God kept moving outside the boundaries I had drawn. My “right answers” sometimes left me deaf to a deeper truth trying to break through.

Richard Rohr says stridently taking sides in a binary system has nothing to do with truth. He warns that many of us have turned faith into a right of certitude, when the gospel actually invites us into exquisite, terrible humility before reality. Rohr also reminds us that the opposite of faith is not doubt — it’s certitude. People who hold too tightly to certitude, he says, don’t allow themselves the humility or openness to be led by God into new places.

Learning to live without certitude has been freeing. It hasn’t made me passive or careless; it’s made me more curious, more compassionate, and more willing to see God at work in unexpected places. I still value clarity where I can get it — but now I know the greater treasure is a heart open to mystery.

Scripture

Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.

1 Corinthians 13:12

‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’

Isaiah 55:8–9

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

John 20:29

Ancient Quotes

If you understood Him, it would not be God.

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 52, On the New Testament

Modern Quotes

Stridently taking sides in a binary system has nothing to do with truth… The very meaning of faith stands in stark contrast to this mindset. We have to live in exquisite, terrible humility before reality.

Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance, p. 99-101

We’ve turned faith into a right to certitude when, in fact, this Trinitarian mystery is whispering quite the opposite: you only need enough clarity and ground to know how to live without certitude.

Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance, p. 101

The opposite of faith is not doubt; the opposite of faith is certitude. People who hold too tightly to certitude don’t allow themselves the humility or openness to be led by God into new places.

Richard Rohr, cf. The Naked Now 

Journaling Prompts

• Where in your spiritual life do you feel the strongest need for certainty?
  
  
• How might holding your beliefs with humility change your conversations with others?
  
  
• What questions or mysteries are you learning to live with before God?
  
  
• When have you experienced God most clearly outside your expectations or certainties?

Most people default to dualistic thinking because no one taught them anything else. How can our teachers teach us what they do not know? Read on into next week to learn the alternative.

👉 Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 22 Reflection: Judgment, Dualistic Thinking