%201.avif)
“Immediately, the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” – Mark 9:24
I had a chat recently with someone whose faith in God has changed over the past couple years. Let’s call him Jim. Jim is no longer sure if the Christian God he was raised with is actually the God who IS.
“I’m kind of an agnostic,” he told me, but not in the sense that he doubted if there was a god or not; only that the God of his upbringing might not be real.
But Jim is still a churchgoer. He helps out at his church in so many ways. He is a talented musician and frequently invites people to come to church with him.
I then asked Jim, “Why do you think you continue to participate in your church in light of your doubts about God?”
Jim responded, “I know that seems incongruent, but I don’t have a clear answer to that question right now.”
The word "incongruent" means not suitable, not fitting well with something else, or out of place. It describes something that is incompatible, inharmonious, not matching, or not in agreement with what surrounds it. For example, wearing a bright yellow blazer to a funeral would be considered incongruent because it does not fit the expected formality or mood of the event.
Jim says that to continue to attend and participate with his church of Jesus followers while having real doubts about the way that same church frames God and Jesus is incongruent. Yet, he still attends, nonetheless.
Does that make Jim a hypocrite? I strongly say no.
Doubting in your beliefs is not just a possibility; it’s quite common. All of us are on “the spectrum.” Not the autism spectrum; I am talking about the doubt spectrum. As we journey through life, we collect experiences that challenge what we believe about the world around us. We start by believing in an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-benevolent God, but when we pray to this God for answers and don’t get them, we doubt He is all those things. Many prayers for healing never got the answer people were seeking.
And some Jesus followers have quick responses as to why these prayers don’t get answered. They confidently quote verses about the sovereignty of God or the prayer not offered in faith or praying while holding unconfessed sin.
And the point I am making is not about why prayers go unanswered. It’s about doubt. Sometimes, there isn’t a Bible verse to make your doubts go away. Sometimes, a crisis of faith isn’t a problem to be fixed by well-meaning words. It’s rather a season to be endured.
Do those turbulent seasons sometimes blow people down the road further from their faith of yesterday? Sure. You all know at least one person who is in this season. A few of you are in that season yourselves.
But what I want to hear today is that this doubt you carry is not a symbol of shame. A doubting heart is part of what it means to be human.
In the Gospel of Mark, a man had an adult son who had been possessed by demons since childhood. The man said to Jesus, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
Jesus then replied, “If you can? All things are possible to him who believes.” The man cried back, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”
What you need to hear is that this man had both belief and unbelief in his heart at the same time.
This is what I call the “Part of Me” phenomenon. Part of me believes Jesus when He says, “All things are possible to him who believes.” Part of me doubts that. My experience has taught me that Jesus does not always do what I ask in the way I ask it.
Part of me believes that Jesus lives inside me. Part of me doubts the One I have never laid eyes on.
Part of me believes that Jesus walks with me and He talks with me along life’s narrow way. Part of me doubts he’s there because I have never once heard the sound of his voice.
If we are honest with ourselves, we all understand the “Part of Me” phenomenon because we all know doubt.
And that makes all of us a little incongruent. The doubting people of faith. It’s why we do the things we do not want to do, but the things we want to do, we don’t. It is what it means to be living in a fallen world.
So, take heart, doubting believer! Jesus has not once given up on you, and He knows you struggle with doubt and uncertainty. He is not interested in you being perfect in your faith. He is only interested in your wanting to be perfect in your faith.
Jim, you’re doing better than you know.