I will soon be publishing a list of preachers I know who’ve used steroids.
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I’m behind on comment-reading. (Lest you feel bad, we’re WAY behind on Christmas.) But I just saw a question from Doubting asking if I ever have doubts. And the answer is . . . .
Yes.
I hold onto Frederick Buechner’s words that “doubts are the ants in the pants of faith.” I keep remember that the people who have influenced me most deeply have been people who never could seem to shake some of their doubts.
I am, however, a believer. “Lord, I believe; help my doubts.”
While I think it’s important for at least some believers to be familiar with the newer attacks against faith, those attacks aren’t what cause my doubts. It’s life. A mind that doesn’t leave well enough alone. Injustices.
What helps my faith is that I don’t read the Bible through some scientific reading of Genesis 1-2. I read all of scripture through the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus. My greatest confidence is that he — Jesus of Nazareth — is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
The Supreme Being of the universe entered the womb of a virgin teenage girl, was born in a barn and slept in a feed trough. Sounds perfectly normal to me.
I’m starting my shopping today. I bet you’re way ahead of me (well, Diane probably is anyway)!
Preachers steroids? I just want to say upfront that I never knowingly took anything that I thought was steroids.
If any sinner enters into the Kingdom of God, that will be an Injustice
Clint,
I may be missing your point, but what kind of human besides “sinners” will be entering the Kingdom?
those not getting what they deserve, Grace.
Gotcha… I’d have to agree… Grace is Injustice, thank God.
I think the “worries of this world” are what knock me off kilter. I know to turn them over to the One that can actually do something about it. Sometimes they are thrown at you one on top of another and you grieve. I have to make an effort in those times to do the right thing and let it go. I have to have faith that prayer will see you through.
Mike, I’m begging you: if you expose my steroid use, I’m ruined. All my baptismal records will have to have an asterisk next to them!
Cope, the way you preach, navigate an audience, make us laugh and then in about the same moment rip our hearts out. . .I’ve always figured you were taking steroids. It’s okay. There is no preachers’ Hall of Fame that I know of. Confession is good for the soul. Come clean with us. No one can preach like that naturally!
Mike,
I hate to admit it but I have nothing adversarial to say. Good post even though its the “cream” which did it.
“I am, however, a believer. “Lord, I believe; help my doubts.””
I sincerely would like to say this someday.
Leland,
I will be praying that you can someday
Doubts are what sometimes can lead us to a stronger faith (somehow!) Keep searching-He’s already found you and knows you-that is the great news! I enjoy your questions and candor, and pray you find joy and peace in the journey…
Thanks for your posts. I am a regular reader of your blog living in South Korea. I always appreciate your thoughts.
Doubt happens…but is oftentimes on the way to a deepening of understanding and faith. The antithesis of faith is not doubt but rather it is anxiety–worry, a lack of trust in God. For me, this is where the real battle is.
Merry Christmas
I feel about doubts in faith like I do about courage. Great courage is not that you aren’t ever afraid–it’s that you do something even though you’re afraid. Likewise, great faith is not that you don’t ever have doubts–it’s that you believe even though you have doubts.
I’ve talked to Mike Cope about his alleged steroid use. He told me it was just flaxseed oil.
And I, for one, believe him. Despite the size of his head.
I figure that Mike’s steroidal substitute is good guacamole.
There are no steroids in guacamole.
Leland,
Faith is a gift. I truly believe that. Faith is not something we can muster. We can’t fake it till we make it. We can ask God for faith though. We can plead for it! Many times I have asked God to give me the faith I lacked. In his own time, he always has. I will pray that God will grant you the faith you seek. And hope you will continue to share your journey with us here!
Is Blackberry cobbler a steroid? If so, I’m all in.
I like Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading by Eugene Peterson for healthy “reading” of Scripture.
Peace.
It is “injustice” for a sinner to enter God’s presence only if one views such from a Roman, legalistic perspective. In the OT, the “justice” of God was largely that he loved Israel, even when she “went whoring” after other lovers. His righteousness and justice were seen best because he kept his promise to love, even when the recipients were unworthy.
It has been said that atheism only really flourished AFTER mankind began to conceive of God as a “God of justice,” in the sense meant by Anselm and his descendants. The Fathers of the Eastern Church rarely painted God’s justice as “fairness” or “strict orderliness.” To them, as to the Hebrews, His justice was his unremitting love, his unflagging seeking out and saving, and healing, of that which was lost; it is God’s love that truly justifies Him as the One God of the Israelites, made known in Christ, not his “courtroom fairness.”
Not disagreeing with anything… just adding thoughts to the kettle…
Great thoughts Kevin…
I for one am all for injustice IF by injustice we mean NOT getting what we deserve by way of some legalistic code (no matter how “Godly” that code is). I think this is the submission that is required of us… not that we submit to the code (we fail at that consistently) but that we submit to the fact that we are hopelessly mired in sin. I am. And so I thank God for Christ and the injustice he submitted himself to on my behalf.
I think the real question is this: to what degree are we willing to submit similarly to injustices done to us for the sake of others? My inability to do that is often what causes my doubt. Can I really be that loving and graceful? Am I ready to be that loving and graceful?
LOL. I read this post early Monday AM. Your first line caught me off guard and gave me a great laugh to start the week. Thanks.
You know the pillar to authentic faith is honest doubt. We are in a terrible situation in the cofC because so little of our faith is really based on struggling with and answering the honest doubt at the bottom of our heart.
You know I just finished a class on discussions of belief and un-belief using Christopher Hitchens book “God is not great”. It occurred to me that very few people really understand the post modern mind in its quest for the invisible God. I can’t tell you how many times people in the class answered with “Well I believe it just because”. The questions they ask and the way they understand reality and truth is much different then people did 50 years ago.
Here’s the thing about doubt: I don’t see anywhere in the Bible that says doubt is a good and healthy part of a life of faith. In fact, I see people chastened harshly when they weren’t even aware they were doubting. What would Jesus say to me when I’m consciously having doubt-filled thoughts? and sometimes sharing those thoughts? Me, of little faith.
I don’t know any other way to be but analytical. It’s part of my fabric. The doubt worms its unwelcome way into my walk with God and my reading of his Word. My thoughts always come back around to faith in God, but I’m never able to shake the doubting heckler in the back of my mind.
I like to think God understands and blesses this part of me, but I don’t see any Biblical indication of that. Have you?