Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-081

THE ORIGINS OF DOUBT (2)

From ‘Sunrise Sunset’ (HarperCollins/Harper San Francisco), Rowland Croucher’s book of daily meditations. Feel free to use or adapt it.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 1 Corinthians 13:11.

A second cause of doubt is instability. A university student wrote to his pastor. He explained that a year before he had a strong faith, and actually wanted to be a preacher. That was in his last year of high school. But now – ‘Philosophy 1 and no God, let alone Christianity.’ He explained at great length how none of the philosophical arguments for the existence of God hold water. He attacked many of the traditional doctrines of Christianity…

Part of growing up is leaving behind the unexamined assumptions of childhood (and maybe Sunday school). Piaget, a psychologist, says adolescents begin to think differently – they move from ‘concrete thinking’ to an ability to think ‘formally’ or ‘abstractly’. Children can draw God. Adults can conceptualize God as omnipresent Spirit…

Paul was referring to this when he said that the way a child thinks and an adult should think are quite different. The challenge for ‘grown-ups’ is to shed childish concepts while remaining ‘child- like’.

Lord Jesus, you said I can’t enter God’s realm unless I am childlike. But deliver me from childishness in that process. Help me to be simple, without being too simplistic. Amen.

Shalom!

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