Deacon Tom Lindell

My brothers and sisters, 

Many of us live in a Black or White world that offers the false security of certainty. However, there are many shades of Gray in between. This is the ambiguous nature of life if we are open to it. This is not about comfort but rather confronting and dealing with the uncertainties of life. I personally label this as living with ambiguity. I have no choice but to live with whatever happens. My response is to simply deal with the situation as best I can.

Ambiguity is defined as something that can be understood in two or more possible ways, holding two ideas at the same time and understanding in more than one way. It involves an active participation in the many ways we interpret reality. How we react is deeply connected to experience, context, history, and character. Therefore, how we respond to ambiguity is not objective. There is no singular correct response. This is also true of ethics.

There are three ways to deal with ambiguity: To Endure (reluctantly), To Engage (tolerate), or To Embrace. The latter choice is to see ambiguity as a challenge and an invitation into creativity. How does this relate to Christians who struggle to find their way? Richard Rohr wrote: We cannot grow in the great art form, the integrative dance of action and contemplation, without a strong tolerance for ambiguity, an ability to allow, forgive, and contain a certain degree of anxiety, and a willingness to not know—and even need to know. (6/30/2024)

We are invited to live into an understanding that we are all INTERCONNECTED to everything in the universe because we all came from that same singular place in space-time. We are also all INTERRELATED to everything in the biosphere because we are related to everything that has ever lived long enough to reproduce. If we would embrace this simple paradigm of ambiguity in an environment of being loved by God unconditionally, our only response would be to view ourselves as part of a larger whole. Our personal responsibility is to exuberantly share that largess with those we engage along the way, just as Jesus of Nazareth did in his lifetime.

—Deacon Tom