Monday, April 12, 2010

Got Doubt?

Got Doubt? Got Doubt about God? Got Doubt about your kids? Got Doubt about your marriage? Got Doubt about your career? Got Doubt about your dreams?
For those of you who went to church yesterday, you might've heard a sermon on Doubting Thomas - the disciple who missed Jesus' first visit after the resurrection and said he wouldn't believe Jesus had risen from the dead until he could put his finger in the nail holes. What a pithy comeback!
And then Jesus appeared to the disciples again and held his hand out for Thomas to follow through on that pithiness.
The sermon I heard yesterday (Good Job, Julie) talked about Doubt being something that leads us to dig deeper, learn more, examine the evidence OR Doubt can become stubbornness which doesn't allow any growth.
Doubt your sixteen year old is ready to drive on their own? Do you just take his past performances and say, "No Way"? Or do you get in the passenger seat and go for a spin?
Julie had a great picture to bring this home. She said Doubt is standing still with one foot up in the air in the middle of a step. Now, either you're going to bring that foot down in front of you and go forward with your doubt, or you're going to bring it down behind you and allow Doubt to take you backwards.
I know a lot of writers and they are the most move forward in Doubt people you'd ever want to meet. Wonder if we do that in other areas of our life? I love that picture of my foot in the air, preparing to step - somewhere.
So how about you, this morning - Got Doubt? Which way are you moving?

4 comments:

Rob said...

They were all doubters until they saw the resurrected Jesus.(Luke 24:11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.) "Doubting" Thomas is an undeserved nickname. He was no different than the others that had not seen the risen Lord. Maybe He should be "Missing" Thomas because he was not in the room when Jesus first appeared. Doubting might not be the problem. The problem might be not making ourselves available and present to the risen Lord Jesus.

Just another way of looking at that text.

Kay Dew Shostak said...

Thanks Rob - And thinking further this morning there are a couple things about Thomas I like. One, he voiced his doubt, like you said, they all were doubting, but he spoke out loud and clearly his doubts and how strong they were. Second, even with those doubts - he was there with them. He'd told them he didn't believe them and yet he showed up. Much like those times of doubt in our own lives, but come Sunday morning we're sitting in the pew. So maybe he's not only Missing Thomas, but Hope-filled Thomas!

Rob said...

Also interesting to note that the Greek word for doubt is not used in this passage. It is actually the root of pistis; pisteuo. The word pistis is normally translated as faith! Pisteuo means to believe or entrust.Thomas really never had a chance to doubt because he never had a chance to believe.
Diakrino ans distazo are is usually translated as doubt and literally means to judge or waver.

Those that really doubted were the ones that stood on the hill with the risen Jesus before his ascension in the Gospel of Matthew 28:17 "When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted."

Poor ol' Thomas just gets a bad rap. He's in all of us and as Julie said yesterday, its okay.

Anonymous said...

Nice post. Writers do have a lot of doubt, don't they? Crazy, huh?

I wish I could say I don't doubt often, but I do.

Logically, I rest in the knowledge God has my back, but my human side tries to exert itself into the picture very often when it comes to doubt.