How can I be sure?

When I was a maths teacher, the response when I told people what I did was far too often 'I was never very good at maths'. Turns out they were probably not so bad, but the whole thing with maths at school is there is often a right or a wrong answer and we don't like being wrong - so when we get wrong we think we're a bit rubbish. Actually getting things wrong in maths helps us to learn how to get it right next time. It's OK to get it wrong as long as we learn from that. 

I love how sure you can be in the answer in maths. You can go back and check it, and double check it again, but you know that that number or equation you get at the end is sure to be right. There aren't many questions in life that you get such a sure answer to. 

Being a Baptist minister raises different things. The pupils in my year 9 class the year I left had a number of questions which included 'how can you give up all this money' and 'you baptise adults, do you baptise them naked?'. 

I don't often get such strange questions these days, but I do get asked 'how did you know that that was the right thing to do'. Because God led me here is the answer. 

How can I be sure of that? 

It's difficult isn't it, sometimes, to try and work out how we can be sure of where God is calling us or whether something is what God is saying in response to us. It's often a case of pushing doors and seeing which ones open wide, or trying things out and working your way through. Listening and following the call of God is not always like a maths question where you can go back to the beginning to check if you got the right answer. 

Or do we overthink it too much?

Often, as we look back, we can see how through our life circumstances, through what we have seen happen in our lives, through the relationships we've built and through the things that have been said how we can be sure, and in looking back we can be more convinced about where we are stepping in the future. 

I keep an intermittent journal and it is when I look back at what I have written and what has happened or been said to me that I see how I got to where I am and where I should go next. There is surety in the consequences of my decision making. There is surety in what happens next. There is surety in what I feel God is saying and the signs that are laid out in front of me. I've found surety in rainbows and robins, in random strangers and in things I've seen as I've been out and about. The answer is sure, because on the journey the jigsaw pieces have come together, and they could only come together in that way because of God. Whenever I question whether I'm in the right place right now doing the right thing God will say, hang on a minute - take a look at this - be sure, it all makes sense even if it doesn't seem to when you overthink it..... 

How can I be sure? 

Because God. 

In the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Zechariah asks this same question - 'How can I be sure?' - it doesn't make sense - they're old - Elizabeth is too old to have a baby. The Angel Gabriel says.... well..... because God. 

As Zechariah overthinks the idea of pregnancy at their age, the angel makes the answer simple..... because God. 

And that's the thing with faith..... faith is about stepping out into the unknown but with surety that it is the right thing, otherwise you wouldn't step out. It's about not overthinking the strangeness of stepping out into a strange place, but just doing it, knowing that God will hold you fast. Surety is not as far away as we might think.

In a world of uncertainty, to be sure (apart from in maths and other similar things) is a bit strange, but this story reminds us that we can find surety...... 

Because God.

In the unsureness of whatever you're struggling with right now, maybe, like Zechariah, the time might have come to stop with the overthinking, and look up to God and say 'what next? Show me how to be sure'. 

'Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”' Luke 1:18