Questions and Doubts

Full Disclosure: Questions and Doubts. 

“If you don’t have doubts, you’re either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants-in-the-pants of faith, they keep it alive and moving.” (Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC’s).

Know Whom to Ask First. So there was John the Baptist, called the greatest prophet of all time by Jesus, and, naturally, he is languishing in a dank dungeon full of soul-searching questions. He was having his doubts about Jesus being the Messiah after all, and he wanted the answer pronto. So he sent some of his disciples directly to Jesus with this question… “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:2-3). I have a feeling we might have asked the same question, right? John had monumental questions, but he knew Whom to ask first for answers. He knew enough about Jesus to go straight to Him before anyone else. With us, whether through prayer, Scripture, or perhaps a trustworthy elder who has gone through it all, we need to do a John the Baptist… Know Whom to ask first when we have our inevitable doubts and questions. Kind of like those dreadfully honest psalmists…

Honest questions from faithful believers, when the Bird in the mist, the Holy Dove, seems to disappear. Notice the questioners knows where to go with their questions, Whom to ask. They name Him, they assume His presence, His open ear. These are good questions to ask when the Dove is sight unseen.

1. “How long, Yahweh, will you forget me? Forever? How long will you turn away your face from me? How long must I nurse rebellion in my soul, sorrow in my heart day and night? How long is the enemy to domineer over me? Look down, answer me, Yahweh my God! Give light to my eyes or I shall fall into the sleep of death.” (Psalm 13:1-3)

2. “Why, Yahweh, do you keep so distant, so hidden in times of trouble… Rise, Yahweh! God, raise your hand, do not forget the afflicted.” (Psalm 10:1,12)

3. “Heal me, Yahweh, my bones are shaken, my spirit is shaken to its very depths. But you, Yahweh… how long? Yahweh, relent and save my life, rescue me because of your faithful love, for in death there is no remembrance of you; who could sing your praises in Sheol?” (Psalm 6:3-5)

4. “How much longer, Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their onslaughts, from young lions rescue the one life that I have… You saw it, Yahweh, do not stay silent; Lord, do not stand aloof from me. Up, awake to my defense, my God and my Lord, to my cause.”  (Psalm 35:17, 22, 23)

5. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The words of my groaning do nothing to save me. My God, I call by day but you do not answer, at night, but I find no respite.” (Psalm 22:1-2)

6. “Wake, Lord! Why are you asleep? Awake! Do not abandon us for good. Why do you turn your face away, forgetting that we are poor and harassed? For we are bowed down to the dust, and lie prone on the ground. Arise! Come to our help! Ransom us, as your faithful love demands.” (Psalm 44:23-26)

7. “I shall wear myself out for your salvation, for your word is my hope. My eyes, too, are worn out waiting for your promise; when will you have pity on me? For I am like a smoked wineskin, but I do not forget your will. How long has your servant to live?”  (Psalm 119:82-84)

8. “God, why have you finally rejected us, your anger blazing against the flock you used to pasture? Remember the people you took to yourself long ago, your own tribe which you redeemed… Arise, God, champion your own cause.” (Psalm 74:1-2, 22)

9. “I will go forward in the path of the blameless; when will you come to me?” (Psalm 101:2)

10. “Through the night I ponder in my heart, as I reflect, my spirit asks this question: Is the Lord’s rejection final? Will he never show favor again? Is his faithful love gone forever? Has His Word come to an end for all time? Does God forget to show mercy? In anger does he shut off his tenderness?” (Psalm 77:6-9)

11. ” But, for my part, I cry to you, Yahweh, every morning my prayer comes before you; why, Yahweh, do you rebuff me, turn your face away from me?” (Psalm 88:13-14)

12. “Bring us back, God our Savior, appease your indignation against us! Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your wrath age after age? Will you not give us life again, for your people to rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:4-6).     (All Scripture references are from the New Jerusalem Bible).

‘I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). I am embarking on a new venture these days, and I’m really looking forward to it. Because of the nature of the work, I know I will have some questions and doubts haunt me in familiar ways. I am now trained to be a “Guardian ad litem,” a child advocate appointed by the District Court to be a voice in court for those children who are unable to speak for themselves in legal cases often involving termination of parental rights. I will be the voice in the court for those children who have been severely neglected, abused, or abandoned by their parents. I go into this work thinking with both hands… On the one hand, I absolutely trust that my God knows what He is doing in managing His world, and that He is the ultimate Lord of Mercy and Justice. I have literally bet my life that this is true about Him. On the other hand, there are moments I have my doubts about this. How fair is Your world, Lord, when there are so many children who don’t even have a chance in life? How is this acceptable to You, Lord Jesus, when You honored and cherished children during your ministry on earth? And You seem to just sit there and allow parents to get away with this abominable treatment of their children? I completely understand James and John asking Jesus to call down lightning on particularly despicable villages. I know, I know, “Don’t fret over evildoers.” Whatever. Yes, punishment is coming sooner or later, but what about the plight of the children right now? Well, this really pisses me off, and like John the Baptist, I have learned to go to Jesus first to express these things. Please pray that I will keep a cool head and tender heart as I begin new cases in a week or two. I have a feeling I’m going to buy a lot of stock in whichever company is making millstone necklaces.

“The secret, hidden things belong to the Lord our God. But the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow the words of His teaching.” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Some random thoughts about doubts and questions:

1. Obviously, what we don’t know far exceeds what we do know. Not everything that is true of the eternal God has been revealed. But it’s important we do not allow this lack of knowledge to define us or direct us. It’s foolish to be defined by what we don’t know;
2. God’s “secret things” need to prompt us to trust in God’s character. We can rely on His wisdom to hide those things from us that we don’t need to know;
3. We humans have limited capacity to understand the mysteries of the universe. If somehow we were given unlimited knowledge, the chances are good that we would soon fall into the delusion that we don’t need God;
4. We are not responsible for God’s secrets. God doesn’t hold us accountable for what we don’t know;
5. But we are responsible for what we do know. We may not be responsible for God’s hidden secrets, but we are responsible for God’s revelations;
6. So the question we ask every day is… What do we believe to be true? What do we know? We need to trust God for what we don’t know, and follow Him in what we do know. That’s our daily starting point. The fact is, we know enough to follow Him a step at a time;
7. In other words, we follow the light we’ve been shown, and as we go, the light will steadily increase.

“After all, what I’m commanding you today isn’t too difficult for you; it’s not out of reach. It’s not secretly laid up somewhere in the sky, so you don’t have to ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and get it for us, and tell us what it is, so we can obey it?’ And it’s not far across the sea, so we don’t have to ask, ‘Who shall go beyond the watery abyss and get it for us and tell us what it is, so we can obey it?’ No, the word is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” (Deuteronomy 30:11-14).

Moses here followed up his short word about God’s secrets with this piece of wisdom above. Even acknowledging what we don’t know, in a sense following the Lord is actually not all that impossible. Since He has helped us to read His mind to the degree that He has in Scripture, we know enough to follow His teachings. His Word is accessible, His Holy Spirit is active, and so we know enough to start doing what He wants us to do. Disobedience is not a matter of our limited knowledge, but of the humble will to choose Him over against the options. We know enough to follow Him, even with all our questions and doubts, so start there and He’ll take it from there with us.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.” (Proverbs 25:2).

But accepting our limited knowledge doesn’t mean we are content with that. In fact, the Final Frontier of discovery is God Himself. It is our noble duty to explore God and His world, to seek out the truth of reality. We have “eternity in our hearts,” which means we have permission from the Lord to investigate His world, to gain a better understanding of His genius in how He is putting all of this together. Exploring a frontier involves:  Investigating uncharted territory; seeking something where settled territory is at the edge of wilderness; searching the extreme outer limits of something for knowledge and understanding; detecting something unknown or unexplored; leads to discovery of something new and finding something unexpected.

God’s Want Ad for All Believers: Adventurers who want to explore Me, this world’s Final Frontier, the greatest Wonder of the World; must be extremely curious about the nature of my Being; motivated to know more about Me than you know presently; inspired by the thrill of discovery;  need to be challenged and changed in the process of exploration; have the courage to step into the safe unknown of Yours truly; able to invest considerable mental energy to pursue life inside My Being with a mustard seed of trust in Me; be comfortable with the certainty of endless exploring; have the patience to pursue the quest one step at a time for as long as it takes; must explore with the vision of C. S. Lewis in his Narnia tales, “Further Up and Further In!”

“O the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God! What a deep wealth of wisdom and knowledge He has! How incomprehensible are His decisions, how unsearchable His judgments! How undiscoverable are His paths, how mysterious His ways, beyond finding out! Who has understood the mind of Yahweh? Who knows how the Lord thinks, or what His thoughts are? Can anyone discern the Lord’s intentions, His motivations? Who knows enough to give Him advice? Is there anyone qualified to be His counselor? Who has given Him so much that He needs to pay it back? Who could ever have a claim against Him? For everything was created by Him, everything lives through Him, and everything exists for Him; So to Him must be given the glory forever! Amen! (Romans 11:33-36, also Isaiah 40:12-14).