But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV
A dear friend and work colleague has helped me to normalize the term “vuca” as a lexical reference when I am navigating new things that have no clear definition and are bridled with uncertain transience. What is “vuca” you may ask? It is an acronym that stands for “volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous”. In technology applications, it is particularly salient for times when pilot research is required to solve an unknown problem applying yet-to-be-developed solutions.
In many respects, my walk as a follower of Jesus reflects this technological challenge I reference. I have learnt, when faced with “vuca” as a believer in Jesus to rely on the quality of godliness. The enabling power of godliness is the ability to accomplish because of God’s activation; a dependence on God and not on self. It is a bifurcated and divergent existence to espouse belief in God but to act in a way that does not allow for his control of my life. The mature believer is the truly surrendered individual, who knows the limits of his ability and does not go beyond them but trusts God for the remainder of the journey or that portion of the task that is without his control. He identifies and acknowledges this latter component and refuses to wage a futile individual war against closed doors, impossible mountains, uncertain outcomes, and other unknown/confounding variables. He gives up on needing to know it all. True trust is not expressed in words only but by the tangible actions of a tired, broken, and surrendered soul at the end of his rope.
I am still far from this but even with my distance from this state of paradoxical perfection, God’s grace is sufficient to bridge my inadequacy, hesitancy to allow his control, pride, conformity to a worldly work ethic standard and a multi-variable/ever-changing lack of self-awareness.
The godly believer abandons any attempt to forcing or fitting a conclusion to struggle. At life’s amoral junctions, finality and clear direction from God are mostly always not forthcoming. Instead, the godly believer develops comfort with ambiguity, lack of clarity and uncertainty…because that is what ultimate trust demands.
