When is doubt bad

She was a veteran missionary with years of experience under her belt, and as the newbie on the block, I looked up to her and assumed she had her faith all figured out and that I was the lone weirdo struggling with my faith.

So imagine my surprise when she opened her mouth and proceeded to share her own struggle with doubt and despair as she watched her mother suffer and die from cancer. I was thunderstruck hearing that someone I admired so much not only understood the emotions I was feeling, but had asked some of the very same questions.

Her courage, vulnerability and openness allowed me to move beyond the cage of isolation and loneliness that doubt had locked me in. But if we begin with doubts and bear them patiently, we may end in certainty.

God is strong enough to bear your questions. Not less. Because when I finally released the fear of what I might find if I fully explored my doubts, I discovered God was faithful in every question to meet me. And my faith is stronger today for it.

She is the author of Holy Doubt: Finding Hope When Faith is a Struggle and blogs about living life and faith honestly and authentically at www. I am grateful to say that I know things I can neither doubt nor deny — yet I cannot put into words. It saddens me to see people derailed by the bad kind of doubt, knocked off the tracks of potential discovery and achievement, merely by the doubt that they are good enough or that what they seek is attainable.

How are you going to know what you can or cannot do or learn unless you actually attempt to determine it through persevering action? History is full of people who did things others said they could not do. The path to achievement and discovery is strewn with the doubts of naysayers. How much easier it is to doubt than to do, to doubt that something can be done than to doubt that something cannot be done. If Edison had believed his doubters, we would have no electric lights, nor would the Wright Brothers have ever attempted to fly.

Rather than silencing your doubts, hear them out, then take action to test them out. Risk believing that you will be able either to resolve your doubts, or at least to learn enough to accept what you must on faith, rather than provability. You will likely discover that what you can actually know or do is far greater than you thought possible.

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch? Register for a user account. Hal Green, Ph. The Buddha's good doubt led to his Enlightenment. We invite you to journey with a God who embraces you as you doubt. As the mother of small children, I nursed a familiar feeling of dread each morning. I found time early in the morning to be alone with God.

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