Doubt

I recently read the following excerpt regarding the subject of doubt:

"We are not required to pray with a faith free of doubt and uncertainty. The only requirement is that we come. Doubts do not cut one off from God.

Reflect on the Gospel account of the father who comes to Jesus with his epileptic son for healing. The father had first approached the disciples of Jesus, but they were unable to help. So, in his continuing desperation, he turns to Jesus (who had just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration).

The man approaches Jesus and says: 'Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he is possessed by a spirit, and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.'

The father also informs Jesus that the son has been like this since early childhood. So the son and the father had both suffered much over the years: the son because of his condition and the father because of his love for his son.

The man therefore implores Jesus: 'If you an do anything, have pity on us and help us.'

One can feel, many centuries later, as one reads these words, the pain in this man's plea. Jesus replies that it is not a matter of what he can do, but of what the man can do. For 'all things are possible to him who believes.'

The man quickly monitors the status of his own heart and mind, which he knows is a mixture of doubt and uncertainty, on the one had, and belief and hope, on the other. But this is too important an occasion to play games -- to pretend to be something that one is not. For if this Jesus can heal his son, he can also discern the man's heart.

So, in utter honesty, the father cries out: 'I believe; help my unbelief.'

That is enough."

-- Robert N. Wennberg, Faith at the Edge