On Doubt, and Why It Is Not the Enemy of Faith

I grew up thinking doubt was the enemy of faith. If I had questions about God, that was a sign of weak belief, and I should bury them under more church and more singing and more striving.

What changed me was a quiet line from Frederick Buechner: "Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving."

What doubt actually does

Doubt, when handled honestly, does three things. It strips away the version of God you inherited. It exposes the false certainties you've been propping up. And it leaves you, eventually, with a faith that is no longer borrowed.

The opposite of faith is not doubt. It is certainty without love. The Pharisees had certainty in spades and could not see the Christ standing in front of them. Thomas had doubt and got Jesus's hand placed in his side.

The honest place

If you are in a season of doubt right now, please hear this: you are not failing. You may, in fact, be moving toward a deeper faith — the kind that is not knocked over by every wind. The faith you had at sixteen was meant to be outgrown.

"I believe; help my unbelief." — Mark 9:24

The man who said that to Jesus didn't get rebuked. He got his son back.

A practice

Don't run from your doubts. Don't drown them in busyness. Write them down. Tell God about them out loud. Bring them to a friend who won't flinch. Read the Psalms — most of them are arguments with God.

Faith is not the absence of questions. Faith is the willingness to keep walking with God in the middle of them. He has not been intimidated by your doubt. Not once. And he is not now.