Lean into Mystery

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.

– John 14:1

There are a number of staff offices that have dishes full of candy available to anyone who comes in to visit. I do not keep a dish on my desk because the siren song of sugar would surely prevail way too often. However, I am also not a stranger to these other sources.

One of those dishes is the bowl on Ainslie Wall’s desk in the Welcome Center. She continually refills it with dum-dums (aka a particular brand of lollipops or suckers or whatever you grew up calling them). There are a variety of flavors available from which to choose. Until recently, I was of the pineapple or lemon-lime persuasion. But a couple weeks ago, Ainslie made the off-hand comment that people rarely choose the “mystery” flavor, identified by the question marks on its wrapper. I didn’t actually know there were such things. That is now my go-to. Why? Because I like mystery. I grew up on Nancy Drew and to this day, I watch many mystery series on BBC.

Mystery and uncertainty are closely related. Each involves not knowing. Each involves some risk. Each leaves room for doubt but also curiosity. Each generally comes with no guarantees of what the outcome will be (although you pretty much know that Nancy Drew, or DI Annika Strandhed, or whoever, is going to sort it all out by the end).

Mystery and uncertainty are a big part of our faith, and our world is certainly filled with both. Archbishop William Temple said that “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certainty.” I love that I do not have to have all the answers, that no one individual has all the answers, that there is always more for us to explore and ponder and question and imagine and pray about.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me,” Jesus says to his friends and followers in the context of the Last Supper. Judas has just departed into the darkness to do what he will do. The disciples, including Peter, who will soon also betray Jesus through denial, are not understanding why they can’t follow wherever Jesus is about to go. Jesus’ words are mysterious and anxiety producing. Jesus speaks directly into the uncertainty and anxiety of the moment.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In Greek, the word translated as “believe” also means “trust.” So, Jesus is telling his followers (us) not to let our hearts be troubled. No matter what. We can live with uncertainty because we trust in Christ Jesus. We can live into mystery because God is already there. These words speak directly into our current world of uncertainty and anxiety. It’s a much-needed reminder that God walks each step of the way with us, through the valley of the shadow of death, but also through the ordinary and the exquisite moments. It doesn’t absolve us from the need to do the work we’ve been given to do, it just reminds us that we never do it alone.

So, the next time you walk by Ainslie’s desk, take a walk on the wild side and choose a “???” dum-dum. Let it be a reminder to ‘let go and let God.’ Jesus has got this.