People of Doubt
Jason Boyett recently wrote in his blog that he’s not as religious as he used to be. Don’t worry, he still believes in God, goes to church, and says grace with his family before meals. But the older he gets, the more his doubts increase.
As a kid, I didn’t know to ask a lot of the questions I ask now. As I’ve aged, and as those questions have come up — and not always with satisfactory answers — I’ve seen myself becoming less faithful, less spiritual, less religious.
I hate to admit it, but I know what he means.
When I first became a Christian, I went through the whole “on fire for Jesus” thing. Everything made sense for the first time in my life. I no longer had an excuse to wallow around in my own misery anymore. But as time progressed and questions arouse, I wasn’t as on fire. I still believed in God (and still do, very much), but I suddenly realized that I didn’t have all the answers like I thought I did.
Doubt is a weird thing. Jesus tells us not to doubt, but it’s such a natural reaction that it’s hard not to doubt. If you’re like me, when conflict comes you find yourself asking, “Lord, you’ve been with me up until this time. Where are you now?” Since I started my faith journey as a borderline-charismatic (I say “borderline” because I could never speak in tongues), I was taught that the slightest hint of doubt could ruin me, like when Peter tried to walk on water and almost drowned. Yet elsewhere in the Bible Jesus tells us a mustard seed of faith is enough (and mustard seeds are like specs of dust). So how much faith do I really need?
I once saw a video of highlights from last year’s Christianity 21 conference. During one part they show a clip of Makeesha Fisher saying Christians are “more often than not people of doubt who have beliefs, than people of faith who have moments of doubt.” I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I think she’s right. We humans have such a limited understanding of everything that it would be arrogant of us to think that we have all the answers. Don’t get me wrong, Truth does exist, and his name is Jesus. But once we start a relationship with Him, we don’t just automatically know everything overnight. Christianity is a journey, full of both smooth spots and potholes just like any other road, but the destination makes it worthwhile.
How do you handle doubt? Do you consider yourself a person of doubt with moments of faith, or a person of faith with moments of doubt?
I like that you used the Peter story, because I think it is 100% accurate. Christ is the only way to survive doubt. Without him you won’t, but we should never be without him.
I don’t think its possible to pay attention in life and not have doubts or things beyond our understanding. The comfort is this that unlike the unbelieving world we have a loving heavenly father who designed and controls it all on whom we can rely (even in our struggling and doubt).
Maybe it makes a difference what you doubt. You can doubt a lot of things about religion and dogma without doubting the saving power of Christ. Jesus called into doubt a lot of the accepted tenets of the Jewish faith when he arrived on the scene, like what you could do on Sabbath, what the Messiah would be like, and how to deal with sin; the one thing he demanded we not doubt was Him. I doubt religion all the time. Somehow I don’t think Christ minds that so much.
“Jesus tells us not to doubt”
I missed that verse. Where is it?
Doubt is a necessary part of faith. Like antibodies to a body, if you don’t have them and then a crisis event occurs (and it will) you have nothing with which to fight back.
I wish MORE people would doubt.
And I wish more people would doubt their doubts too!