When I stand in the pulpit (or wherever) tomorrow, I wonder how many people will be listening and struggling with doubts about what they believe. One person, 10 people, half the congregation, the whole gathering? Perhaps it depends on what kind of doubts. Actually, any doubts qualify…all the way from “Is there a God?” to “Does God really hear my prayer?” to “Did Jesus really feed the crowd of five thousand?” If I ask people to write down their doubts on pieces of paper and pass them in, what would we read?
It’s the doubters I want to talk with tomorrow. Better yet, it’s the doubters I wish I could listen to. (Pews make it hard to have a conversation.) Maybe we should have a “doubters” coffee table. Why? Because doubters are at least thinking about their faith or about the lack of it. Yet, doubters can stay stuck. But if doubters take the next step and ask questions, they are on the road to discovering something genuine they can trust in. They won’t believe in something because they are told, but they’ll believe in something because it is genuine, or because it makes sense with what they’ve experienced. At least, that’s the case with this sometimes doubter. Yes, I have doubts about a lot of things. Guess I’ll be preaching to myself tomorrow.
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