We are spending five weeks exploring Fabric’s five core values. These aren’t the core values we would like, but what has been at work all along when we were at our best. This one is “Brave Uncertainty.”

January 23 - At the Core: Brave Uncertainty If there is anything you can be absolutely certain about, it is that there is very little certainty in the world. The simplest things require context - Does 2 and 2 make 4? Or 22? The point is that rather than dumbing down life and living a reasonable facsimile, as a community, Fabric has choosing reality at its core. We brave the messiness of uncertainty and in it find forgiveness, hope, mercy, and each other. Join us in it.

We all love suspense, except when the uncertainty that causes it is in our own lives.
Suspense is what happens when we brave uncertainty, one of our five core values.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CORE VALUES listen to the first seven minutes of last week’s podcast on “Choose Connection.” LINK. But in short:

Core Values spring from your WHY and tell you your WHAT and HOW.
We get this backwards and focus on the stuff of our lives (the WHAT) and HOW to get it, then look around for justifications (WHYs) for why it all makes sense. Your WHY should be your vision for your life and your choices, actions, and commitments should follow from that.

If uncertainty is scary, why does Fabric like to deal with it so often? 

  • The Future is uncertain, and it is unavoidable. 

  • Truth is uncertain. We can only discover it in the living out of it.

  • People are uncertain. No single explanation or story captures anyone. Relationships need to embrace the messiness of life.

Uncertainty is hard and inconvenient, but it’s where Growth happens, and we want to grow!


The Bible and other sacred texts and traditions have endured, not because they gave easy answers or certain truth, but because they help us live with the uncertainty of life.

Wilderness is the metaphor for uncertainty in the Bible. And there is a lot of it in the Bible!

Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness to become who they were to be.
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness to become who he was to be.

Braving Uncertainty isn’t counter cultural like Choosing Connection, it’s just scary!

Watch Isaac Lidsky’s 2016 TED Talk on fear and the unknown. He tells us how our brains are flooded with fear when we are faced with what we don’t know overwhelming reason. We then imagine the worse and are willing to accept what we know even if we don’t like it. He calls this, “Awfulizing.”

That’s why we need to “brave” uncertainty. That doesn’t mean we can’t be afraid. Bravery assumes fear, it just chooses to move forward anyway.

Cara E. Yar Khan explains how fear and bravery work together to make better choices when dealing with uncertainty.

Fear reminds us to be careful as we step into the unknown. 
Bravery makes sure we will set foot in the unknown.

To help us Brave Uncertainty Fabric helps us deal with uncertainty and fear by looking at how we can insert a Growth Zone between our Comfort and Danger Zone.

What is a Danger Zone and what is in yours?

What is a Comfort Zone?

What is a Growth Zone?

These images will help you follow the conversation in the podcast. 
Imagine how they apply to some uncertainty that you fear in your life.

Here is something to try this week that can help you Brave Uncertainty.

Pick out something that feels threatening, scary, uncertain in your life. It’s in your Danger Zone and you are probably avoiding it.

With the support of the 3 Ps (People, Perspective, Practice) claim a piece of that Danger Zone for your Growth Zone. 

Start slow, start small, but make a plan for how to deal with that one piece you’ve chosen and use the 3 P’s to stick with it until it is comfortable enough to reach even deeper into your Danger Zone for the next piece.

Mentioned in the podcast: Care IQ