Nancy's Notes
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Puzzles
Posted by Nancy Burnett on March 20, 2026
"Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks defined faith “not as absolute certainty, but as the courage to live with uncertainty, risk, and doubt.” But uncertainty is hard to live with. In a world where we can predict the sunrise and sunset, the weather, and the cycle of holidays, not knowing what the future holds fills us with anxiety. He interprets the Torah passage in Ecclesiastes as a meditation on finding meaning through the appropriate timing of life’s experiences—that time itself is a precious non-renewable resource—that finding meaning means embracing each day and finding joy in daily experiences."
— Nancy Burnett
When things are going well in our lives, we allow ourselves to become complacent and unprepared, but life is not predictable. We carefully map out plans for the near and distant future knowing that the unpredictable may force us to re-evaluate our priorities. What was once not even considered becomes our new reality. On what do we rely for comfort and security?
My comfort comes from family, friends, and faith. When looking ahead to the future becomes too uncertain, I try to think of all the positive things in my life.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks defined faith “not as absolute certainty, but as the courage to live with uncertainty, risk, and doubt.” But uncertainty is hard to live with. In a world where we can predict the sunrise and sunset, the weather, and the cycle of holidays, not knowing what the future holds fills us with anxiety. He interprets the Torah passage in Ecclesiastes as a meditation on finding meaning through the appropriate timing of life’s experiences—that time itself is a precious non-renewable resource—that finding meaning means embracing each day and finding joy in daily experiences.
Although we cannot predict what tomorrow holds, we can control our reactions. Sadness fades; memories remain and give us hope. The rain is ultimately replaced by sunshine.
It is faith that encourages us to seek a path forward, painful as it may be. It is faith that shows us that better days lie ahead. Ecclesiastes reminds us that “for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.” There is no GPS for life, but like GPS, a wrong turn can be corrected. We are on our own relying on our moral compass.
May we always look ahead at the divergent path before us as an opportunity to choose not the path of least resistance, but that of greatest communal reward. The gift of choice has been given to us; it is up to us to choose wisely even in times of uncertainty. And so we set our moral compass on true north—true honesty and true faith knowing our individual choices make a difference in our own lives and in the world.
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