Living with Uncertainty: Developing Faith

The Biblical harvest holiday of Succoth is marked by erecting temporary structures to live in for 7 days. Dwelling in these makeshift “tents” remind us of the precariousness of life, where gently winds can turn fierce at any moment.

With uncertainty, we are called upon to develop faith. Faith means living in the moment without reference to the past or future. We are trusting the moment and the uncertainty that characterizes living in the presence of the present. Colette (Jerry's teacher) defined the life of spirit as one of “leaping into uncertainty.”

Society pushes us to believe in certainty as well as its near relatives of safety and security. Searching for certainty is searching for security in the future, where we are told all our doubts will be put to rest. But living in the future actually fosters doubt, while living in the present erases doubt. In living with uncertainty, we practice staying in the moment, taking our attention away from the imagined (catastrophic) future or imaginings of how things and people "ought to be” for us to feel safe and content.

Jerry called faith “unconditional action” where we make up our minds to step in a direction not knowing where we will end up or what the outcome will be. Why is it unconditional? Because our actions are not mediated by our past conditioning or by conclusionary thinking regarding the “future.” Rather, faith speaks directly to our relationship to the invisible reality. All we know is that we have faith and trust that we are connected to a source that is there for us, to inform us and sustain us and support us.

Click here for an imagery exercise to develop faith excerpted from Dr. Jerry's opus We're Not Meant to Die (spring 2022)