5 Minute Reflection #14.07: Faith, unmasked

Every day for the last few months I have posted an affirmation of faith via Facebook and Twitter. For the first several weeks it read like, "This day is a gift from God. Let me live like I believe it." In more recent weeks the affirmation contains a tiny but significant difference, "This day is a gift from God. Let me love like I believe it." This shift is simply an acknowledgement of the first and greatest commandments, "Love God. Love Others."

You might ask, how sincere can these affirmations be? Is it really possible to live and love consistently and with such a spirit of gratitude day in and day out? Could these sayings be a sort of mask? Could I be hiding my doubts and uncertainties?

Here's how this works. Of course I have doubts and uncertainties from time to time. No thinking person of faith has no doubts. No honest, thinking person of faith should claim to have no doubts. That would be a mask. Billy Graham has said, "“Doubts are a normal part of life. We doubt things on earth, so its easy to doubt things of God.” In fact, doubts are necessary to the definition of faith. Logically, if we can prove something beyond all doubt, faith is unnecessary. So faith is a choice, a decision that what is believed and hoped for is more compelling and of greater value than the alternative presented by doubt.

Lee Strobel says, “For many Christians, merely having doubts of any kind can be scary. They wonder whether their questions disqualify them being a follower of Christ. They feel insecure because they’re not sure whether it’s permissible to express uncertainty about God, Jesus, or the Bible." What happens when we give in to that fear and put on the "no doubts" mask? Strobel says, "they keep their questions to themselves and inside, unanswered." Their unanswered questions "grow and fester . . . until they eventually succeed in choking out their faith.”

There it is. No masks. No pretending that I never, ever have any doubts. Even so, I choose faith and I choose to affirm it every day.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1 NIV)

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A useful although relatively inactive site about dealing with doubt is here: Dealing With Doubt

"This day is a gift from God. Let me live like I believe it."  is borrowed from Mark Elfstrand, former host of The Morning Ride on WMBI-FM. Mark used to sign off every morning saying ""This day is a gift from God. Let's live like we believe it." You can find Mark's blog here: The Way WE Work