justbarelymadeit

When Christ appeared to the disciples following His death and resurrection, His first words were to identify and question their doubt. “Why are you so troubled and filled with doubt?” He questions their doubt, but he does not leave it there. He goes on to give them the assurance and even physical proof that they need to rest their questions. He does not reject them for those doubts, but rather addresses them and assures them.

The important thing to understand here is that the doubts were the beginning of the interchange Jesus has with his disciples. They are not the end. Doubt is always a beginning, but never an end. It begins a question, and as heavy or destructive as that question might end up being, the doubt never resolves that question. Something else inevitably ends that beginning, and I believe we actually have a say in what that ending will be. Doubt will happen to us, but where we go from there will be up to us. The danger comes in when we begin to translate these doubts and questions as if they were defining resolutions in us. But, how can they be? How could a question ever be used to explain who I am and what I believe? At best it could perhaps show what I don’t believe, but by definition a belief is an understanding of a concept in the positive, and a doubt/question is a query in the negative. Your doubt cannot and will not define you. Where you take it? That might define you though.

So, what about you? What is the end result of your doubt? Where will you come out? Sure, you have doubts as we all do and will, but what will be the end of your doubt? Will you choose unbelief, or will you address those doubts, grow and move on? What will be the end of doubt?