The End of Uncertainty Returning From Exile

When faced with uncertainty, the first strategy that we use, almost instinctively, is to suppress it by replacing it with artificial certainty, easily contradicted by existing proof. The second strategy, focused on learning to tolerate uncertainty, enters the stage as we realize that denying uncertainty would mean taking refuge in a lie. A third strategy is to identify coping methods that would help us to preserve our sense of meaning in life. The most daring strategy capitalizes on the motivation to use all means available to fight to overcome uncertainty.

There is one more strategy that deserves our attention. Although it might initially seem counterintuitive, embracing uncertainty is probably what is most frequently missing from the toolbox we use to prepare for the unknown. Embracing uncertainty means accepting that some things simply cannot be known and acting on the basis of the information we have, while at the same time ensuring that our behavior is ethical and beneficial in the long run, both for us and those around us.

There is no reason why we should let uncertainty become the realm of our emotional exile—an inhospitable world that expels our convictions, faith, life narratives, values and principles, identity, meaning, and joy for life. On the contrary, it is uncertainty that should be exiled in our world, bound to be a perpetual ‘frenemy’—its potential to harm us preserved, but also an opportunity to discover what matters most to us and to constantly remodel ourselves so that we may become a force that draws back those who have lost themselves as exiles in the land of the unknown.

This collection of essays by dozens of well-known authors will return your focus from the edge of uncertainty to the solid foundation of the One we know.

Norel Iacob, ed.