a blessing for the gift of doubt
Oh God, I long for understanding, but life is full of unanswered questions.
God, reveal to me what I need to know and for all the rest….show me how to live with so much uncertainty.
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end, nor do I really know myself.. But I believe that the desire to please you, does in fact please you.…”
— Thomas Merton
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”
— Voltaire
Blessed are we who come to You in the discomfort of our doubt,
for we trust that our honest unknowing is a truer and better prayer
than bootstrapping efforts at certainty.
Blessed are we, receiving the gift of doubt,
for we trust that it is a doorway, freeing us to become
that we could not otherwise have known.
Blessed are we, remembering that You God, hold all things together.
You are the invisible scaffolding that supports us,
the canopy of love that protects us in the present,
the stable pillars, sunk deep into our past,
and the Dove that flies confidently toward the future
bearing for us the peace we could never have attained for ourselves.
Blessed are we, settling into the truth that there are things that we can’t know,
settling into the humility that knows this one thing —
that we are of the earth, and You are our God.
Notice this day what you do know and trust. thank God for it. And leave the rest.