Here’s a poem from Sharon Mollerus I thought you might like:

Doubt never shoved
Anyone out of bed in the morning:
At the least, it must be suspended
To complete the project. That’s its
Best answer – provisional. Meanwhile,
It slithers at the windows, a coating
Of gray fog that fades bright bleeding
Reds and blinding greens to rust brown
And seasick marine.

I have been thinking about the power of “doubt” lately. I know, I know, we live in a culture and we are in a religion that puts a lot of emphasis on believing. Christmas is a time to believe, suspend imagination, suspend facts and believe or is it really a time to face the doubt.

On closer examination of the Christmas stories, we see a lot of doubts, a lot of questions. True, questions and doubts are two different things though they sometimes show up at the same time.

What role does doubt play in your belief system? What role does doubt play in your day to day experience of life?

Here is a challenge for 2008; stay with your doubts. Embrace your doubts and see what happens.

Back to Sharon:

This is no ordinary
Storm we are stuck in, standing in such
An unseaworthy boat; we are about to
Founder and fall out. Wring some last
Hope from your salt-soaked kerchief,
For I won’t be the first to stop bailing
Us out. Doubt is neither pillow nor
Preserves. It doesn’t stock
The pantry or people
One’s bed.

May God meet your doubts somehow.