Faith Admits Doubt

Disclaimer: I’m going to talk about Obama and quote from a controversial speech.

If we can move past whatever our opinions may be about President Obama (I’m not interested in political debate in this blog post), there were a few powerful words that came out of his speech at Notre Dame on Sunday that I think hit some important nails on the head for our youth ministries.  At one point he shared:

…the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It’s the belief in things not seen. It’s beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us. And those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.

And this doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, cause us to be wary of too much self-righteousness.

Faith admits doubt.  That should humble us, but not destroy our faith.  One of the interesting themes in our College Transition Project research has been the importance of doubt in the faith journey.  Students who feel safe to express their doubts in their high school youth groups seem to actually have a stronger — not weaker — faith as seniors and then across the gap into college.

Yet, how many of us teach and preach faith as the absence of doubt?  How many of us teach (directly or indirectly) that questioning our faith is sinful?  How many of our ministries really create space for kids to feel like they can bring their hard questions about life and God?  I pray that our own faith can be marked by a humility that allows for God to be bigger than our answers, and big enough for kids’ questions.

©2009 Fuller Youth Institute