Faith and certainty
In the book Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning, the author writes of an encounter between John Kavanaugh, a Jesuit professor of philosophy, and Mother Teresa. While working with her in Calcutta, he asks Mother Teresa to pray for him. Mother Teresa replies, "what do you want me to pray for?" And he says, "Pray that I have clarity". Mother Teresa responds, "Nope. I won't do that." So Kavanaugh of course asks why. And Mother Teresa explains, " Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of ." Kavanaugh says, "But you seem to have lots of clarity!" And Mother Teresa laughs and says, " I've never had clarity. What I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God ." Put another way, perhaps what Mother Teresa was saying was, certainty is your last idol . Stop chasing certainty and trust God . How does this match up with what the Bible says about faith and certainty? James 1:6-8 teaches that ...