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One of the dangers surrounding religion is it tends to crush our ability to question.

The rules, organizations, and social pressures of the religion give the impression that having any kind of doubt is an affront to God.  And so we stop asking questions.  We check our brains at the door.  We give up one of our traits that makes us like God: our ability to think.

It seems to me that somewhere along the way we have confused the message.  We have jumped from “faith” (a good thing) to “blind faith” (something the Bible never encourages).

Perhaps the best known example of doubt comes from Thomas.  (Hint: he’s called “doubting Thomas” for a reason.)

Thomas wouldn’t believe Jesus had risen from the dead unless he had hard, cold evidence in front of him.  What did God do?  He certainly didn’t take this as an insult.  He didn’t throw a fit saying, “how dare you question me?!”  Instead, Jesus showed up and gave Thomas exactly what he was looking for.  Thomas was not smote for his unbelief.  Thomas wasn’t punished for his doubt.  In fact, Jesus simply states, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Jesus calls us to faith, not stupidity.

The Bible is filled with people who doubt – from Moses to David, to Peter and Thomas.  It’s not that we need absolute proof, it’s that we need to act on the faith that we have.

But that’s not the message so often delivered.  Is it any wonder our world collapses the minute we’re confronted with suffering and pain?  We cry out, “where are you God?!  How could this happen to me?!”  What we once never questioned now seems so untrue.  Faith seems empty and hollow.  And we begin to wonder, “does God really exist?”

So we walk away from our faith.

Ironically we walk away with as few questions as when we started to believe.  We assume our suffering must be God’s fault.  It rarely occurs to us that maybe there’s another reason our lives are miserable and we are hurting.

Perhaps we are suffering because we are being pruned.  Perhaps it’s because we did something God has warned us not to do.  There’s a reason things like murder and adultery are listed in the 10 commandments – they have bad consequences!  Or maybe we’re suffering simply because the world is broken and bad things happen.

In all three of those cases it becomes important to ask questions.  In fact, it’s probably the best thing we can do.  The worst thing we can do is shrug and say “it’s God’s will.”  I’m pretty sure God doesn’t like us blaming him for things we screw up.  And if it really is God’s will, then don’t you think we should be asking what he wants?

God never says, “check out.  Don’t bother to use your head.”

Now doubt can be toxic.  Don’t get me wrong.  We can become consumed with “absolute truth.”  We can convince ourselves that we are just “honestly questioning” things.  When in reality we are simply showing blind doubt because we don’t want to confront the implications of God.

The truth is, we will never get 100% certainty.  At least not on this side of life.  There will always be some level of “faith” in your decision to believe, or to not believe.  That’s just the way the world is.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t ask God questions.  For the next week I encourage you to find out what assumptions you hold about him.  Look to see if they are true, or if they are false.  But ask questions!

There’s never a better time to start questioning your faith than today!