At the end of each year people often focus on New Year’s resolutions. Some sort of analysis is made of the past year and new plans, goals, and objectives are made in areas of life that either need a change or a bit of redirection. For the child of God who is endeavoring to daily walk in the footsteps of Jesus as closely as possible, perhaps the goal of eliminating Doubt with an Optimistic outlook is one of the strongest resolutions possible since it permeates every area of Christianity. Unfortunately, doubt continues to be at epidemic proportions in the world and is extremely contagious. In his book, Lord, Change My Attitude Before It’s Too Late, author James MacDonald makes the following points about Doubt.
1. “Doubt is contagious. It’s easier to catch than the common cold.”`
2. “Doubt is passive. Faith requires action; doubting does not. Nobody ever wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I bet today’s going to be a great day for doubting. I’m going to doubt God all day today.’ Doubting is what takes over then you do nothing. Faith required doing something; doubting is doing nothing…’ ”
3. “Doubting satisfies our tendency towards self-protection. Nobody likes to be wrong.”
4. “Doubters are easier to find than friends of faith.” The author goes on to state “I’m so grieved for our students who are trying to build a foundation for their life spiritually, but they don’t have any friends of faith. It’s absolutely critical that we cherish those people in our lives and develop those relationships, because friends of faith are absolutely critical.” (pages 182, 183).
Years ago I read a question which bears sharing. Why do people doubt their faith but never seem to doubt their doubts? The question poses an interesting (but tragic) reality. Doubting often consumes more energy than is used in questioning the validity of the doubts themselves. The Apostle Thomas is most often referred to as “Doubting Thomas” and yet, he does exactly what we expect any student of God’s word to do – don’t just take someone’s word for what is real and true (John 20:24-31). Instead, examine and study God’s word for yourself (Acts 17:10-12; II Timothy 2:15).
If Doubt is so pervasive and easy to embrace, how does one get from Doubt to Optimism? First of all, God’s word itself is a message of optimism and hope in the midst of a selfish, self-serving humanity which, left to its own devices, has no hope. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is a tremendous message of optimism. His teachings provide the best system of ethics which the world will ever know and his sacrifice for sin gives an optimistic hope to a humanity that is lost, condemned, and alienated from God.
Here is the challenge. Whenever the child of God looks to the past as the best days of the church of our Lord, he/she is giving in to the downward spiral of doubt. Think of child actors who never get beyond the fame of the TV or movie role they played in their youth, or the athlete who always lives in the past.
Life is always a journey and while one may have fond memories of the past, the future is open to many more wonderful (and often greater) experiences and successes. However, if we reside within the community of the doubtful, we reside with the generation of Israelites who, on the brink of conquering the promised land were looking back and not forward (Numbers 13, 14).
May we have an optimistic outlook for the future of the Lord’s work in this community and a desire to work to see positive dreams for the future of the Lord’s church become reality! Have a Great Year! (Jim)