Doubt as Holy Invitation

Church of the Resurrection Insights Blog

Amy Oden

I’m so grateful for this theme of doubt in Pastor Adam’s current sermon series! One of the gifts of doubt is the way it invites us into awe and openness. I believe there is a holy invitation within doubt. A holy invitation to:

· Remember we don’t already know everything

· Be surprised that the world is more mysterious, beautiful and amazing than we thought!

· Bump up against the limits of our categories and labels

· Humility and openness

· Curiosity about God, others and the world

· Holy unknowing

· Love bigger than certainty

The Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai describes something of this holy invitation available through doubt:

The Place Where We Are Right

From the place where we are right Flowers will never grow In the spring. The place where we are right Is hard and trampled Like a yard. But doubts and loves Dig up the world Like a mole, a plow. And a whisper will be heard in the place Where the ruined House once stood.

—Yehuda Amichai (A Touch of Grace, 2000)

“Doubts and loves” – yes! God is at work in our doubts and loves, digging up the world, plowing with whispers. Befriend your doubt today. Listen for its holy invitation.