Our brain is a very strange thing. Ambiguity and uncertainty play a big role in this important organ, and it is this organ which gives us the fear, anxiety, happiness, joy, sadness, etc. Now let’s take a look back at our lives and try to recollect or even remember a time in our lives when everything seemed very certain and sure? Well, I definitely do. I remember as a child that I didn’t have any of these gizmos that children have nowadays. I did not have computers, laptops, mobile phones etc, (as children now do have) but my parents sent me to school certain that I would get a good education. Many parents were happy to send me to school with no worries and I could walk to school for kilometers or travel by bus and be certain nothing would happen to me. When I got home back from school I could safely play outside in the streets with other children until dark, with the assurance that I would be safe. I enjoyed my childhood and never stressed or thought about what or how the next 30 or 40 years would bring or look like. But nowadays we live with more uncertainty.
All we need to do is to look at our present situation with the pandemic. So much of uncertainty has been created around the outbreaks of this virus – wearing masks, lockdowns, isolation, being vaccinated, rules and regulations etc. Once the lockdowns were finished, we were worried about meeting people and travelling. We are slowly gaining that confidence. However, the present chaos around airports create more anxiety and stress in us, which makes us feel we are better off staying at home than traveling anywhere.
Last year a very close friend of mine with whom I went to school suddenly passed away. She was very young and only in her 40’s. She had been married only for 5 years and had a 2-year-old baby. Her death was very sudden and a bit of shock. She died of a sudden arrhythmic death syndrome which caused a cardiac arrest and left her dead. That sudden death made me think quite a lot about my own life and made me realise that we do not know how long any of us have time to spend on this earth. It is uncertainty that sprung into my mind.
It made me think quite a lot of all the uncertainty surrounding us and how with so many uncertainties in life our hearts are stressed, afraid and anxious. We all go through constant doubts, fears, and joys in our daily lives. However, we all would have and can remember that one moment when we think of something that upsets us and we linger on it so much that we are worried, upset and so afraid and we quickly realise it is beyond our control to stop it. It is then we have a bright spark moment when we realise that it is uncertainty that is weighing us down. By then it’s too late for us to realise that our mind has gone through so much that we are stressed, anxious and fearful.
I am a big believer that things happen for a reason and that God always does the right thing at the right time. It is this faith of mine that has kept me going strong in my life in midst of all the turmoil and chaos that we as individuals experience every single day in our lives. So, when everything around me comes crashing and all seems to be chaotic, troublesome and uncertainty, anxiety, and pain have set in I am reminded of this passage from Ephesians which might be summarised like this “Be confident in the face of uncertainty”
To conclude life is filled with uncertainties and it up to us to change it. We need to get into the mindset that even when we are surrounded by uncertainty that we will not let fear and anxiety dictate over us but to remain calm and take each day as it comes.
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