Friday, June 06, 2008

Struggling With Faith

This post on Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed blog is an honest letter from someone struggling with faith because of health issues. Those of us who spend time with people fighting cancer (or going through any of life's other difficult challenges) face these faith questions frequently, both theirs and ours. Here's my comment reproduced from the blog -- not wisdom, just where I am.

What you're struggling with is hard. Many of us have been, are, or will be struggling with precisely the same questions you're asking. In fact it's likely that we'll go through this questioning multiple times in our lives.

After years of spending time journeying with people asking these questions, struggling with them myself, and studying lots of what's been written on the subject, I'm convinced that in the end, it boils down to a simple decision we each have to make. We can choose to believe and trust -- in spite of not understanding or liking what's happening -- or we can choose not to believe or trust (and still not understand or like what's happening). That was Job's decision -- to maintain his integrity, his faith and trust in God. If we understood it, if we could explain it, if it all worked the way we wanted, then it wouldn't be faith.

I choose to believe and trust, because I simply can't imagine going through these trying and uncertain times without God. That's my prayer for you as well.

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