A friend of my is going through an Ultimate Test. Having known a little of that in my own life, she and I have shared some confidences and tears. She recently sent me an email and asked me how I felt about uncertainty–if it was “acceptable” to me. Here is my answer….

Of the many gifts great and small that I was sent with to this earth, the tolerance for uncertainty is one that I most treasure. It is a key to my happiness and my ability to learn effectively. So, yes: uncertainty is acceptable to me. Truth be told, I don’t know anything in the world that I’m not uncertain about in some measure. There are truths that I have an absolute certainty about, and at the same time I’m certain that I very little notion about their true meaning, depth and complexity.

It’s the difference between sheep and goats, I think. Having raised both by hand, I can say that there was a time that I thought the good Lord was out of his mind for suggesting we should be like sheep or lambs. Goats are smart, creative, inventive, clever, personable, funny, persnickety. All thing that we pride ourselves in, right? Oops. Pride. Riiiight.

Lambs are so docile and trusting that they don’t even fear fire if you’re standing next to it. They’ll walk right through it to get to you with no idea of any personal danger.

I think when we’re like goats we have no idea how stupid we are. And when we’re like sheep we’re completely dialed in on things we can trust in absolutely, without understanding them and without fearing anything that could happen to us by trusting the Master.

Goats think they know; sheep know He knows. Uncertainty is perhaps just the limbo between picking a side–or maybe the first step toward walking through the fire to safety.

xoxo rd