The 3 Percent

One of the things I love most about our church is that there are so many opportunities to learn really cool stuff.  After church there are usually three different adult classes that meet and discuss a wide variety of topics.  We’ve studied everything from Spirituality in American Literature to Faith in the intersection between church and state.  The folks that teach are so good.  Mostly they are professors of some sort so they really know how to teach a class.

Today we were talking about some of the big questions of Christianity.  Specifically, the idea of mystery.  What do we know?  One woman in the DVD we were watching said that one of the things the Hubble telescope has taught us with all the images it has sent back is that 97% of what is out there is invisible to us.  We only know 3% of anything.

3%

As she so eloquently put it.  “What the hell do we know?”

There was a lot of discussion about the mysteries that surround us.  How important that knowing that we just don’t know a lot of things is probably a good thing.  It keeps us humble.  It keeps us searching.

But after a while, all this talk of the 97% that we don’t know made me uneasy.

So I kind of sheepishly raised my hand.

And I talked a little bit about the how grateful I am that I am in a congregation that asks questions.  That their questions make me think.  That they have broadened my world view. They help me lead a more examined life.

But then I said this.  I said that I think it is really important to remember that we do have that 3% that we know.  That we can be sure of.  That we can base our lives in and our hope on.

At 10am tomorrow I will once again have radioactive dye injected into my veins.  I will once again lie in the dark with only my thoughts for company.  I will have my body scanned from neck to thighs.  I will look for clues in the faces of the technicians and they will give nothing away.  I will spend the next 24 hours in a state of anxiety that I have given up trying to control and that I couldn’t even begin to describe to you.  I will walk into Dr. C’s office on Tuesday morning and he will give me news that will dictate what comes next.

It is a terrible few hours.

It is the 3% that keeps me from absolutely losing my mind.  Because in that 3% lies the certainty that I am His child and He is with me.  That He has a plan for me that is good.  Good for my husband and my girls and my extended family.  That He is in all of this.

3% is enough for me.