{"id":2234,"date":"2021-01-28T11:34:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T16:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=2234"},"modified":"2022-07-24T18:53:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T23:53:59","slug":"the-beauty-of-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=2234","title":{"rendered":"The Beauty of Doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Doubt\"\n

Almost four years ago to the day, I wrote a piece titled \u201cTruth takes a beating \u2026\u201d<\/a> In it, I lamented the rise of \u201cfake news\u201d and the new category of \u201calternative facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not much has changed. If anything, things have gotten worse. Truth finds itself more under assault than ever before. That said, I still have faith that while truth \u201cmight lose a battle or two, it always wins the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years there has been another casualty. And that is the vilification of doubt: the belief that doubt is weakness, that doubt is unprincipled, that doubt is evil.<\/p>\n

I believe in the beauty of doubt. I\u2019ll go one better. I believe in a God that embraces and works through and with our doubt.<\/p>\n

Consider this. In the book of Matthew, Jesus said that \u201camong those born of women there is no one greater than John the Baptist.\u201d Wow. That is a pretty high complement from the Son of God. Yet only a few pages later in Matthew\u2019s same account, this same \u201cno one greater than John\u201d guy asks whether Jesus is \u201cthe one?\u201d That is, he doubts.<\/p>\n

He asks through his buddies \u201care you the One or should we be waiting for another?\u201d This is John the Baptist \u2013 the same John who baptized Jesus in the River Jordan, the same John who heard God\u2019s voice, the same John who saw the \u201cSpirit descending like a dove.\u201d Still, despite ALL that, John had doubts.<\/p>\n

I wonder. Could John\u2019s doubts have been one reason Jesus considered him so great?<\/p>\n

I believe there is beauty<\/strong> in doubt. Doubt elicits the winsome qualities of humility, modesty, and open-mindedness. By contrast, the absence of doubt brings out ugly elements of cocksure self-righteousness.<\/p>\n

I believe there is community<\/strong> in doubt. Doubt\u2019s questioning, it\u2019s hesitancy, encourages re-examination, inclusion, openness. Doubt\u2019s absence invites isolation, segregation, and discrimination.<\/p>\n

Finally, I believe there is wisdom<\/strong> in doubt. Doubt keeps our minds open, inquisitive, wondering. Without it, there is no exploration, no inquisitiveness, no investigation.<\/p>\n

To be clear, I\u2019m not suggesting that we not stand firm in our convictions \u2013 that we not stand up and speak out in defense of the beliefs, principles, and morals we hold dear. No. Not at all. Stand tall. Stand strong.<\/p>\n

Rather, I\u2019d say we follow St. Peter\u2019s advice to \u201calways be ready to give a logical defense\u201d of our faith but to do so \u201ccourteously and respectfully.\u201d Indeed, other Greek translations of that last phrase admonish us to do so \u201cwith meekness and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not quite, doubt, but close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost four years ago to the day, I wrote a piece titled \u201cTruth takes a beating \u2026\u201d In it, I lamented the rise of \u201cfake news\u201d and the new category of \u201calternative facts.\u201d Not much has changed. If anything, things have gotten worse. Truth finds itself more under assault than ever before. That said, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,130],"tags":[176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2234"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2243,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234\/revisions\/2243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}