What to do? What to do...

I've been captured by the concept of "Uncertainty" lately.

I've been reading a lot: Anthony Marra's "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena," S.J. Gazan's "The Dinosaur Feather," John Dickerson's "On Her Trail," and Rob Bell's "What we Talk About When We Talk About God."  A novel about individuals in Chechnya caught up in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Russian government, a Danish mystery that also deeply engages scientific inquiry, a memoir that wrestles with finding the person within the flawed parent, and a book that questions God's relevance and even identity in our current cultural context. In a variety of ways, each of these addresses that concept: the idea that all is not necessarily what it seems, that a certain action does not always bring about the expected reaction, that Mystery is as much a part of Life as anything else.

Additionally, I spent last week at the Association of Presbyterian Christian Educators (APCE) conference, and was fed by wonderful speakers, preachers, and leaders.  I came back with my brain burbling with ideas and excitement and enthusiasm for ministry and education.  While ideas are good, and excitement and enthusiasm even better, I'm also aware that everything I bring to the table as we continue our journeys of faith in my church community may be received with joy or skepticism.  That the work we do together may succeed or fail - to some degree perhaps it is inevitable that it will do both.  That nothing is absolute, as much as I wish it could be or think it ought to be.

So the current question for me is: What do I do these musings?  In a world where the longing for Answers with a capital "A" is so strong, where the hope of direction that leads to positive response is so deep, how do we learn to live in the Mystery?  How do we accept that there is more that we don't know and will never know than there is that we do or will?  How do we live in the gray area that is Life not just without complaint but with acceptance and even joy?

More to come...