People of Little Faith

Sunday, June 05, 2011

I have to completely admit that I'm coming out of a spiritual black hole. For quite a long time now, I've had lots of questions about faith, and in particular my relationship to faith.

It wasn't that I doubted the existence of God or anything like that, but my faith was troubled and I had a hard time reconciling it. I'm very happy to say that I've come through that time and I'm a lot stronger because of it.

And I think that's the point that God was making in me.

I had a discussion with a student the other day that was struggling with an issue that one of his friends had approached him about on a matter of faith. We had a great discussion and I think, for the most part, we answered his question. On my drive home, I started to think about that conversation and the nagging question that bothered him and the relief that it brought when it was figured out. That's growth.

If you're comfortable in your faith and you never have a question about God or Jesus or anything like that, I don't think you're growing. If you read the Bible and never walk away with a doubt or a nagging question in your mind, you aren't going deep enough.

As human and finite beings, we should have questions about God. We should have doubts. Why are we so afraid of having a doubt. We're human, after all.

In Matthew 8, Jesus and the disciples were out on a boat. While Jesus was sleeping, a large storm came and ravaged the small boat. On a side note, I think it's kind of funny that Jesus slept through the whole thing. The disciples, having been with Jesus for some time now and seeing him work miracles and learn from his teaching still didn't seem to understand who Jesus was. He said to them: "You of little faith..." His disciples were amazed and understood a little more about who Jesus was.

We too are people of little faith.

Our moments of little faith lead us to bigger faith.

0 comments: