Letting Doubt Remove Apathy

One of the ways doubt can be a gift to us is to move us away from apathy and cynicism. When we’re feeling stuck sometimes we can fall into inertia or into being sarcastic about what other people believe. Neither of those are very helpful - both apathy and cynicism set traps for the soul, chaining us to where we are and not letting us move forward.

Healthy doubt has passion. Read over these words from the Psalm - can’t you feel the heat in them? The pain? Just naming real doubts is costly - and yet it’s how we move forward.

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God. - Psalm 13:1-3

As one theologian/poet puts it, “What we call doubt is often simply dullness of mind and spirit, not the absence of faith at all, but faith latent in the lives we are not quite living, God dormant in the world to which we are not quite giving our best selves (Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss).

Where is there dullness of mind and spirit in you? Where are you not quite living fully? When are you sarcastic towards the beliefs of others? Think about these things and see if you can hear the gentle invitation from the Spirit to do some of the hard work of healthy doubting instead.