Losing My Religion

Trophimus I left at Miletus sick. 2 Timothy 4:20

Sometimes people don’t get healed. Even the apostle Paul couldn’t heal his friend Trophimus, and he had to leave him behind on one of his missionary journeys.

Sometimes, when those prayers don’t get answered, we get skeptical. We doubt. Sometimes, for reasons of unanswered prayers, lack of healing, or intellectual questions, we lose faith altogether. It’s not unusual on the spiritual journey. So how do you handle a loss of faith in a way that’s healthy?

Take some time and reflect on these thoughtful words from a Christian professor who knows what it’s like to lose faith and who knows the reality that it could happen again. Ask God to speak to you today.

I live with the possibility that someday, for some reason – intellectual or because of some great pain in my life or something else unforeseen – I will again find myself paralyzed, perhaps even unable to believe at all.  If that happens – as it happened to the disciple Thomas in the hours after the crucifixion – I hope for two things. I hope the community of faith does not kick me out because I am unable to believe. And I hope I choose to stay within the community even if my faith has dried up – to see if my dry bones can live again.

- Daniel Taylor, The Skeptical Believer