Fly Fishing On Uncertain Terms

It doesn’t really matter what the arena is; The job,  fly fishing, sports, debating politics, teaching, or dealing with complicated moral  religious issues, I have often been perplexed by the certainty I see expressed in others. There seems to be little doubt.

I don’t know if I missed a seminar somewhere on positive thinking, self confidence or self esteem. Or, maybe it was a class on how to always know the absolute one way to live life and always catch fish.

When it comes to fly fishing (and for that matter many areas of life) it often feels as though it is a “toss up” whether I will catch the fish I am stalking. It also feels like a toss up if I am offering the right advice to a client I may be guiding or a friend I may be offering counsel.

Maybe it is an illusion, but often when I talk to others I get the feeling they sound so much more certain. . This seems to be particularly true if one is offering a service or selling a product of some kind. We seem to be getting the message that one better come across as certain or people will lose their confidence in you and what you are offering. But there is something that seems inauthentic about always being so confident.

Ironically, I find some comfort when I hear uncertainty in the voices of those I interact. In fact, I am far more comfortable and trusting being around people who are less certain. I get particularly uneasy when people confidently start pontificating what God’s will is.

In regard to faith, I think our uncertainty and our doubting can be an indication that our faith is more authentic and reverent. But, often, I guess I am not even certain of the value of my doubting.

During an evening church service, minister and friend Dave Shaw shared with us some thoughts about reverence. This theme of certainty and uncertainty and knowing or not knowing God’s will was at the core of the discussion. We seemed to share the idea that proper reverence of what God’s will might be has some level of uncertainty. And in a sense this admitting of uncertainty is reverence.

We ended the evening when Dave shared some words by Abraham Lincoln while he was struggling with some very tough religious moral issues of his day.

“They come to me and talk about God’s will …

Day after day, laymen and ministers , . .  

Defining me, God’s will…

But all of them are sure they know God’s will,

I am the only one who does not know it.

And yet if it is probably that God

Should, and so very clearly state His will

To Others, on a point of my own duty, It might be thought He would reveal it to me

Directly, more especially as I

So earnestly desire to know his will”

( Paraphrase by Stephen Vincent Benet in “John Brown’s Body”)

And those words strangely help me feel better about not being so confident in myself.