2/25/17 Joe about 30
Today I was at a suburban mall, and
went out to the commons area where men wait patiently while their wives are
shopping, and I reached out to Joe, a young father-to-be who was also waiting
patiently for his wife. I asked about
his spiritual beliefs, and found out he had abandoned the faith he grew up in
upon leaving home. We talked some and he
told me he was about to be a father, so I asked how he would answer the
questions his child might ask of him one day.
“I’m sure you will want to raise your child with moral guidelines, but
where do these morals come from if you don’t believe in God? And your child will know if you have doubts
yourself. Now is the time to deal with
your doubts – not just for your own sake but for the sake of your children
someday.”
This was the turning point in the
conversation which caught Joe’s interest.
He began to ask questions, not trying to disprove Christianity but
wanting to learn. Sincere questions,
healthy questions. And I was glad I have
pursued the answers to these questions myself, not just for my own faith but
for the faith of my family and people I love, and for the faith of complete
strangers like Joe. As it says in 1
Peter 1, we need to “be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to
give the reason for the hope that you have.”
But how should we deal with our
doubts? On the Sea of Galilee, Peter
tried to deal with them himself, looking at the stormy water he was walking on,
and he began to sink. He had taken his
eyes off of Jesus – never a good idea.
But is simply ignoring our doubts a good idea? We might keep our eyes on Jesus, but we are
still aware of our doubts, lurking in our peripheral vision. When I was a young Christian in my late
teens, I was blessed to have some Christian adults who counseled me that “God
isn’t afraid of our questions”. This
told me two things – that it is okay to ask sincere questions about our faith
if we have them, and that we should take those questions to God. It is possible to deal with our doubts while
keeping our eyes on Jesus, because He has all the answers. He wants us to have enough faith to trust Him
for the answers, and in the meantime we should pray the same wise prayer of the
father who wanted Jesus to heal his son in Mark 9 – “I do believe; help me
overcome my unbelief!” We may have doubts but all we need is a mustard seed of
faith to go to Jesus with our questions, and he can vanquish those doubts and grow
our mustard seed faith into a tree big enough for “birds to perch in its
branches” – not just ourselves and our loved ones, but even strangers like Joe
whom God puts in our path.
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