I read something the other day that has changed my view of doubt. Randy Harris wrote a book called God Work. In the first chapter of this book he writes, “The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is complacency. Anybody who cares enough to doubt is very close to the faith.”
This took me aback. I thought I was supposed to be ashamed of my doubts. Doubt meant that I was not the strong faithful Christian that I needed to be, questioning nothing and certain of everything. Thomas doubted that Christ had risen and was standing in front of him and we give him a hard time for it. But how many of us would have believed that our Teacher, who was killed on a cross three days ago was really back from the dead?
Augustine says, “Only he who doubts can truly believe.”
I am forming some new ideas about doubt. Doubt is not our enemy. Doubt is the search for truth. After thinking back, to when Christ transformed my life I remembered that it wasn’t until I verbally expressed my doubts to a trusted friend and mentor that I was a able to truly believe.
What would happen if we started encouraging this kind of conversation? Where doubts could be freely expressed. We could put all our questions out on the table and work through them rather than suppress them. We would never stopped searching for the truth because we would never become complacent with our faith.
Let God use your doubt to teach you more than he ever has.
And let’s stop giving Thomas a hard time.
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