Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-067

POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE DOUBT

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

When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Matthew 28:17.

Pascal, the 17th century French thinker, wrote in his Pensees: If you know God but do not know your own misery, you will become proud. If you know your own misery but do not know God, you will end in despair.

So, to paraphrase another beautiful bit of wisdom from Pascal: If you cannot be Christian, at least be honest. There are two kinds of people we can call reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because they know him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they do not know him.

There’s nothing wrong with doubt, provided it’s the right kind of doubt. Negative doubt is cynical, not wanting to come to a knowledge of the truth. Constructive doubt can lead to faith. The opposite of faith is not doubt but unbelief. Doubt is ‘can’t believe’; unbelief is ‘won’t believe’. Doubt is honest; unbelief is obstinate. Doubt is the process of looking for light; unbelief is content with darkness. St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, put things in the right order when he said, Credo ut intelligam, ‘I believe in order that I may understand.’

Lord, I continue to ask all sorts of questions to which I find no answer. The light given to me is not nearly all I could desire. But perhaps it is all I really need. Lord, I have not seen you physically, but I believe. Amen.