Article January 13, 2003 Issue

Living with certainty

By Margaret Rogers

IS LIFE A GAMBLE? Ask someone who has lost a child or parent or spouse to violent attack or accident. Ask someone whose life savings were invested in a business that failed. Ask people who believed they had an ideal relationship until it went sour. Sometimes uncertainty is the only thing that feels certain.

Yet through thousands of years of humanity's ups and downs, the world's most enlightened spiritual teachings have offered reassurance—even the guarantee—that good can be certain. Consider these words of Christ Jesus:

"Anyone who comes and listens to me and obeys me is like someone who dug down deep and built a house on solid rock. When the flood came and the river rushed against the house, it was built so well that it didn't even shake" (Luke 6:47, 48).