Summer Doubts

I love the summer. When I was a kid summer was for playing baseball with my buddies, hanging out at the beach or just sitting around in the evening watching the Giants beat the Dodgers (that didn’t really happen very often back then). Save

The long days of summer also give us time to think, contemplate and wonder. I find my faith rejuvenated in the summer but I also find, at times, that doubt has the chance to sneak into my thoughts. As Karl Barth, the great old theologian asks, “Is it true? The Love of God? The forgiveness of sins? Is it true?” Doubt, can be a stumbling block or stepping stone. If we name it and admit that it is there, it can be a help to our faith, not a hindrance.

Thomas, the disciple who had trouble believing that Jesus was resurrected, is sometimes called Doubting Thomas. That is an unfair label. We ought to call him “Realistic Thomas” or “Tough-Minded and You Can’t Pull the Wool over My Eyes Thomas.” He can’t believe it is all true. He needs to see Jesus in the flesh but more than that he needs to see the scars, he needs to run his hands over the wounds.

Do you know what he really wants to know? He wants proof that it wasn’t all a charade. He wants to feel the scars so that he can be certain that the pain and the suffering that every human will encounter is the same that Jesus went through. The proof for Thomas will not be the sudden appearance of Jesus from behind locked doors but the rough and ragged scars on his hands and his feet.

Jesus appears and when he says to Thomas, “put your hands in my hands,” it is in that moment that Thomas believes. Thomas believes because the scars are real. God is found in the wounds.

Look at your life. Pay attention to the broken places, the old hurts, the never-to-be-forgotten insult over something long ago. Look carefully. In that place of brokenness, you may find that God is real.

Grace and peace to you,

Glen

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