Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Handle Uncertainty About the Future

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

Do you feel like nothing is certain right now? Whether it's vacations, school, weddings, child care, graduations, retirement, promotions, or jobs, none of it feels certain. But followers of Jesus shouldn't be wrecked by uncertainty. In this episode we look at the practical ways Jesus helps us through uncertainty. Interested in more content like this? Scroll down for more resources and related episodes, including https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/how-should-christians-respond-to-coronavirus/ (How Should Christians Respond to Coronavirus?) and https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/why-we-worry-and-how-to-respond/ (Why We Worry and How to Respond). Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks.  Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Patrick, I've been asking a lot of people what they've been learning in the last 120 days about themselves or about life. And then sharing one of the things that I've been learning is that I really hate uncertainty. And I don't think I realized how much I hated it until everything in my life became uncertain. I mean, it's been really hard for me because I like to plan and I like to know the plan and I'm okay with the plan changing, but I kind of want to know where we're headed. And that's just not the way things are right now, is it?

No, it's not at all. And I feel the exact same way. I sat down the other day and I just started making a list of things that I wasn't certain about looking forward. just looking at the next few months, I'm not certain about school for my kids. I'm not certain about child care. I'm not certain about finances, work, work hours. I'm not certain about, I mean, I was supposed to do some weddings. Are those going to happen? I'm just doing the wedding. I feel bad for people who are having weddings. They have no idea if their wedding is going to happen. I've been getting asked by people to do weddings and then they keep changing. The location changes, the date changes, the month changes. I just... You just hope they move it to an island. Well, I don't think they would take me to the island.

No, they wouldn't. You just get left behind. No, they just get like their cousin to do it or something. Everything's uncertain here at church. We used to have plans that maybe were six months out or three months out. We don't make plans now that are more than three weeks out. It just doesn't make any sense to because everything changes from day to day. It's true for everybody.

I mean, I think about you, I mean, you have a high schooler who graduated or kind of graduated. He graduated. He made it. It just was a weird senior year. made it out. But I feel bad for high schoolers who are looking forward to junior, senior year, and am I going to play sports? Will I have the high school experience I wanted to have? Am I going to walk during graduation? Everything's uncertain. I feel really bad for parents who are trying to figure out what they're going to do if school's canceled. And it seems like, at least at this moment

that we're recording this, where we are, that school is on. And yet nobody's confident of that. But we're here we're up close on the time. I'll give it 40 days. It's supposed to happen. Let's say it starts. Is it going to last? How long? 40 days? I don't know. 40 days of the flood. Is that what we were going for? 40 years of wilderness wandering? I don't know where you're going with that. But that uncertainty is hard for human beings. We prefer to know what's going to happen, even if that's bad news. We prefer the certainty of bad news over uncertainty. There's this great study that came out of Europe. I assume it was sometime in the past because I don't think we do. bizarre studies like this anymore. But the way the study works is they would put people in a room and they would tell them, you're going to get shocked 20 times. But one half would be told you're going to be shocked severely 20 times. And the other half of the room was told, hey, you're going to be shocked severely three times, but they're going to be at random. You won't know when they come. And so they put people into this shock room and they measure their sweat, their heart rates.

And here's the crazy thing. The people who only got three severe shock. They were sweating more. Their heart rate was going faster. Afterwards, they reported much more anxiety. And why? Well, it's kind of obvious. It's because they were uncertain about when the shocks were going to come. A great quote from Virginia Seteer, who's a therapist, she says this, most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty. And I think that's really true. If you told me I'm just going to have an awful next year, but you tell me all the bad things that would happen. I love that. I can survive that. But a year where I don't know all the miserable things that are going to happen? That's terrible. I think I'd rather be shocked severely three times. I'm just talking back at that. How do they get

people in a room? Who signs up for a study that says, hey, come get severe shocks? It's college students. They get paid him? When I took a psychology class, I had to go to their psychology level. As part of my psychology class, you did do so many. That's why I laugh at these psychology tests, by the way, is they say, well, according to this test, I'm like, these are all 18-year-old dudes who were taking a class. I I remember running this one thing. They put all this gel in my hair. They put this cap on my head with all these wires coming out of it. Are there pictures?

They took pictures because they put me in front of this box with this screen and it was just flashing images. And I had two little clicker buttons and I clicked one if I liked the image and a different one if I didn't. And there was a camera in front of me like clearly filming my facial expressions. I won't tell you what it was testing for it. But it was weird. I mean, it was bizarre. I would drop that class. Yeah.

So how do we respond to this? Well, we try to find a way to escape or we find a way to control. We find something that we can latch on to that gives us a sense that we are in charge of our life. And so I think that's why in these kind of moments, people maybe turn to conspiracy theories or they turn to something like astrology. Because they're looking for something that says, I can control this and know the future. You want to something crazy? $2.2 billion every year spent on us. astrology. $2.2 billion. And they study this so they know when there's more money being spent,

and it happens at these moments. At the Great Depression was a huge spike in astrology spending. In the Great Recession of 2008, huge spike in astrology spending. And guess what? We're currently in a massive spike in astrology spending right now. And again, the reason is we don't like uncertainty. And so the big spenders right now are millennials, by the way. So we've got this group of people who are very pro-science. We don't have a big idea about the super-natured. natural. We don't believe that kind of stuff. I'm a millennial, by the way. And yet, here we are spending billions of dollars trying to get our horoscope to tell us the future because we're so terrified of being uncertain. It's so interesting. Educated people who claim that they believe in science

and reject religion are now turning to astrology because it turns out that their worldview can't handle uncertainty. I think that we're all on a search for a certainty savior. someone or something that can tell me that my future is going to be okay. I know people who kind of have these personal certainty saviors, it's a vacation that's coming up. If I can just get to this vacation, if I can just get to this day, then my family's going to be okay, we're going to be okay, or maybe it's something like graduation or a wedding or a retirement that's upcoming. It's really easy in the midst of all this uncertainty to attach your hopes to something that you think, okay, it's going to happen. I'm going to hope that it's going to happen. And if it does,

then I can be okay. And yet, what we see happening time, and time again right now is those things are falling apart, one after another. And then there's the escape. Like I've been talking people who just can't wait for Major League Baseball season to start or the NBA in their bubble down in Orlando to start because they're just looking for a way to be able to turn it off and to escape into something else. In the exact same way, we talked about this a while ago on the podcast, Pfizer, they came out with this ad that talked about how we can put our hope in science.

science is going to save us from this. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we're three months into this, and science has yet to save me from anything. Now, I am hopeful that there's going to be a vaccine, but I start laughing when I hear people saying, oh, did you hear about the new vaccine news? It's coming out in a month. Oh, it's coming out in 60 days. It's coming out in six months. It won't be here for two years. No one knows. And even when the vaccine comes out, science can't save us from the next future pandemic. Science can give us amazing things. And I'm going to be grateful when there's a vaccine, but we're so desperate for a savior that will even turn to things that aren't real people, just science. Science will save us. Well, I don't know.

I haven't seen that happen yet. I think that's one reason people are addicted to the news cycle these days is they're trying to latch on to something that gives them a sense of hope and direction. And maybe it's science or maybe it's sports and how sports are going to do that for us. Or like you say, we have personal variations of that in our own life of things that we're looking forward to or trying to find that there is something. that is going to rescue us. I think some people think it's going to happen in the election. I've heard some conservative people say, hey, once the election is over, then the media isn't going to pay so much attention to this. Or I've heard others on a more liberal side who have said,

look, if we can get a different president in the White House, this will all change. Well, I'm not sure either are true. I think the reality is that this is outside of human control in some ways, But because we don't want to admit that, we look for a savior, sports or science or political savior. Now, uncertainty is not anything new in the history of humanity. I actually think it's kind of interesting. We are probably in the history of the world, the people who have had the least uncertainty in our life. I mean, throughout the history of the world, you are having a baby. There's a good chance that baby's not going to make it.

And these days, that happens, but it's much rare. Every day you have to eat in the ancient world, and you're not sure will I have today or will I not have food today? In my entire life, I've never really sincerely had the fear that if I needed food, I couldn't find it, I couldn't get access to it. And again, that happens to some people, but it's rare. We live with very little uncertainty. So we're kind of going through something new, but uncertainty is nothing new in the human experience. If you read the Bible, there's a way of reading it that kind of knows the outcome, and then there's a way of reading it that puts yourself into people's position. If you were David and you're on the run from Absalom, we know how

that turns out and David is able to return Jerusalem and resume his kingship. But you're out there in the wilderness on the run, being hunted, and you don't know how it's going to turn out. Another good example is the disciples. Just put yourself in their shoes after Jesus' crucifixion. Think about what's happened here. The person they've been following for three years, the person who they have closely associated themselves with has just been executed by the Roman officials for insurrection. He's being executed because he has claimed to be a king in opposition to Caesar. And here they are his close followers. That had to be terrifying. They know that the next people on the chopping pot are them. It's not just them either. We know that Peter had a family. He has to be

thinking, what's happening to my family up in Galilee? Is my wife okay or my kids okay? In fact, we know that they're terrified because in John's gospel, he tells us that after Jesus's crucifixion, they are hiding under lock and key in a room. John 2019 says this, on the evening of that day, and this is actually several days after the crucifixion, but before they've seen the resurrected Jesus, it says on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors were being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. They know that there are headhunters, death squads out, they're coming for them, and they're terrified. And they're sitting here thinking, I mean, I have to imagine and what's going through their head.

Jesus, you promised you were going to bring God's kingdom. Jesus, you promised that you were going to give us eternal life. Jesus, you promised so many different things. And this was not in that plan A. Nothing has come true that you promised. And so here they are in a world of uncertainty. I think of the two guys walking on the road to Amas, it's the time after Christ has been crucified,

and they don't know it at the time, but Jesus starts walking along with them. And so they're having a conversation, again unknowingly, with Jesus about the crucifixion. And they were so incredibly disappointed because they said they had hoped he was going to bring the kingdom of God, but all those hopes had been dashed. And so here are people who had invested themselves in following Jesus, who are now unsure of what to do, heading back to Amos, their hometown, trying to figure things out.

They didn't know where to go next. Yeah, it's easy for us when we read these stories to forget. The disciples really did not get it. Jesus talked about his resurrection, but they really did not get it. They thought he was talking about some sort of general resurrection at the end of the age. They did not get it. When he died, they thought this is game over, story over. What we spent our lives building everything around, it is done. All of that is done. And I am living, again, if you're a disciple, I'm living in a world of uncertainty. And so I love what happens when Jesus comes and visits. them for the first time in John's gospel and what he says to them, because I think he's speaking to them in the midst of their uncertainty. In fact, I'll go a step further. I think this is what Jesus might want to say to any of us right now in 2020 as we are all facing uncertainty. So let me just read John 2019. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. That little phrase, peace be with you. It's probably exactly what they needed to hear and what they had a difficult time believing. There's no hope for peace. Everything's gone awry.

Verse 20, when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side, and then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So clearly when he walked in, they're so flabbergasted that they don't even believe that it's him. He's like, well, check out my hands, check out my side. This isn't a vision. I'm not a ghost. This is really me. And then verse 21, Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. Hey, if you didn't get the first time, let me say it again. Peace be with you. As the father has sent me, so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. So let's try to take a few takeaways out of here, Keith,

and see if we can apply some of what Jesus is saying to the disciples to us. What he doesn't say is peace be with you because everything's going to turn out like you hoped, because the cancer is going to go away, because school's going to be in session and your kids are going to be safe, because your finances and your job are set and secure, so don't worry about it. I've got this all under control. Things are going to go like you want. Not at all. I mean, in this broken and fallen world, we're unsure of what happens, but we do know that oftentimes what happens

is not what we would want to happen. And so Jesus says that you can have peace in the middle of difficult circumstances. Because the peace is not built on your life turning out the way you wanted it to, or the next six months going smoothly, the piece is built on something more sure, a more solid foundation. And that is what? Well, it's on a lot of things. It's on God's promises. It's on that he is with you. It's on the sense that he's at work for your good. It's built on that his love for you is sure and steadfast and that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, that this world is not the main world, but that one day we will live body and soul resurrected with our great Savior. And so when you build your life, I was just having this conversation today with some guys,

when you build your life on things that can be taken away, then you're going to be filled with anxiety. You're going to worry because what if those things are taken away? But when you build your life on things that cannot be taken away, then anxiety dissipates. Because I'm building my life on Jesus and things that last, then I don't have to worry that they'll be taken away. They can't be taken away. Another thing Jesus doesn't do for them is he doesn't say, hey, here's the plan. Here's exactly what's going to happen next. Let me just lay it out for you.

Instead, do you notice what he gives them? he gives them a mission. He says to them, as the father has sent me, so I am sending you. In the midst of uncertainty, what I desperately want because of how miserable I am if I don't know what's going to happen is I just want a plan. Just tell me what's going to happen next and I can be okay. But that's not something that Jesus offers. Instead, he says, you just need to know your mission. You just need to know the direction that you're headed. And here's why I think that's so important. I think that it turns obstacles in our life, so things like COVID-19. It turns those things into opportunities. How does it do that? Well, if you know God's got a mission for you, if you know that he's sending you out into the world for his purposes, then when you come across an obstacle like COVID-19 and all the uncertainties around it, you realize, well, this is obviously part of God's plan. The question is, how is he calling me to walk through this? And everybody else around me is seeing all these things as obstacles, but I need to look at them and say, this is an opportunity. I saw this in the spring. It was an obstacle to have my kids at home, but there was also an opportunity. We got to build a different kind of relationship.

I got to spend time with them that I didn't normally get to spend time with. We're facing this as a church. It's an obstacle to not really be able to meet together the way that we used to. But yet we see these opportunities. There are people who are tuning into church online in new ways and connecting with Jesus in new ways, and they might not be coming to Jesus online if it weren't for COVID. If you've got a mission, if you know where you're going, you don't have to worry about, do I have the direct route?

We might be on a detour, but you still know where you're headed. And that can give you a lot of certainty in the midst of uncertainty. I think of Paul is saying we walk by faith, not by sight. So you walk, you keep moving, you keep going forward, not by sight, not by the confidence that you can see the plan, like you said, but instead by faith that God has a plan and that he is with us in the middle of this and that all the most important things in our life can't be taken away. One of the things I say to people who are in this spin cycle of worry and anxiety is just,

okay, well, what if that happened? Well, okay, what if that happened? and that happened too. And then you get to the point where you go, well, I guess I would have Christ. I guess I would have my security and my relationship with God. I guess I would have the things that are most important in my life. And I'd make it. And I go, yeah, so no matter what happens, if you know Christ as your Savior,

if you know Christ as your hope, you know how this ends, ultimately you do know the plan. You don't know how you get from here to there, but you do know how this ends. And that is with Christ being victorious, with Jesus being the reigning king, with you being with Jesus. And so the confidence in that future joy gives you the freedom now to serve others and to love others and to walk out in faith. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating.

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