Redemption in Uncertainty

by Apr 12, 2020

Right now, we’re in Passover. Today is Easter Sunday. And Hajj, which should have just come to a close, has been delayed to late July.

Here, sheltered in place, staying away from community, wary about illness and livelihood, uncertainty is as close as skin. But isn’t that always the case?

You wake up in the morning and – really – do you ever know exactly how the day will go? Even these days, at home. Check this out.

When you look back over your life, could you ever have predicted the twists and turns it’s taken? Looking forward from here, do you have any absolute idea? The only thing any of us knows for sure is that our bodies will drop. Once they’re born, that’s the only direction these lives can go. In between birth and death – it’s all improvisation. We’re making it up as we go along.

The ancient celebrations of this season are all about uncertainty. And, they’re about redemption.

In the tradition of our childhood, we came to understand that today was the day we considered the possibility, and finally celebrated the certainty of redemption. Our story was that of the resurrection of Jesus Christ – the moment the three brave and loving women made their way to a grave no one else would dare approach. But the women went, and they witnessed the miracle at the center of what became Christianity.

Redemption is about all sorts of things that are at the center of your very nature, no matter your spiritual tradition. Like the Earth that sustains our bodies and the galaxy that holds the Earth, we are revising and renewing all the time. For us humans, thinking and feeling – and then thinking and feeling about our thoughts and feelings! – make it so we’re able to name the experience of uncertainty.

What if redemption is never certain? What if it springs from uncertainty? What if, by nature, we are wired to redeem ourselves in deep connection with everything and everyone else – all revising, renewing and redeeming at the same time.

What if uncertainty is actually a boon? An awareness of what’s most real – what can never be taken away from any of us across any of our days? What if uncertainty uncovers the choices we have to be part of the redemption or part of the degradation and harm? That’s a pretty stark revelation. But, what if?

Today – the day you’re reading this, is a day of uncertainty. It is also a day brimming with the possibility of renewal – of redemption.

Now, as ever, we live from here.

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