{"id":4634,"date":"2025-05-19T08:49:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T12:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4634"},"modified":"2025-05-19T08:49:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T12:49:36","slug":"a-trustworthy-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/a-trustworthy-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"A Trustworthy Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

\u201cI will tell you my secret: I have doubts.\u201d<\/em>

Those are the opening words of John Ortberg\u2019s 2008 book Faith and Doubt<\/em>.

As a general rule, we applaud individuals for such transparency. A confession of doubt these days is regarded as a sign of authenticity.

Of course, we don\u2019t really want to hear \u201cI have doubts\u201d from the surgeon who is about to operate on our heart, or from the pilot of the jet we just climbed aboard. And it can be more than a little unnerving to hear admissions of doubt from our spiritual leaders \u2013 those to whom we have entrusted the earthly care of our souls.

As a pastor, John Ortberg knows that all too well.

He intentionally titled his book Faith and<\/u> Doubt<\/em>, and points out that the most important of those three words is the one in the middle \u2013 for the simple reason that most people he knows are a mixture of both trust and<\/u><\/em> skepticism, assurance and<\/u><\/em> uncertainty.

He notes, \u201cIt strikes me as arrogant when people on either side of the God-question write as if any reasonable person would agree with them because, of course, they wouldn\u2019t hold an opinion if it wasn\u2019t reasonable.\u201d

If we take a brief inventory of famous quotes and quips about belief and unbelief, it\u2019s easy to see what a struggle it has been for people to entrust themselves to Something or Someone beyond ourselves. Here are a few of them:

\u201cFaith is believing what you know can\u2019t possibly be true except that it\u2019s in the Bible.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Archie Bunker in All in the Family<\/em>)

\u201cFaith is one of the world\u2019s great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate\u2026 Religion is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness.\u201d <\/em>(Richard Dawkins, biologist)

Faith is \u201cnothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.\u201d <\/em>(Sam Harris, neuroscientist)

\u201cI believe in the church of baseball. I\u2019ve tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones\u2026and the only church that truly feeds the soul is baseball.\u201d <\/em>(Kevin Costner\u2019s character in the movie Bull Durham<\/em>)

\u201cLife is just a dirty trick from nothingness to nothingness.\u201d <\/em>(Ernest Hemingway)

\u201cEveryone has to believe in something. I believe I\u2019ll have another beer.\u201d <\/em>(bumper sticker)

\u201cI want atheism to be true. It isn\u2019t just that I don\u2019t believe in God. I don\u2019t want there to be a God. I don\u2019t want the universe to be like that.\u201d <\/em>(Thomas Nagel, philosopher)

\u201cToward the end of the Roman Empire, all religions were regarded by the people as equally true, by the philosophers as equally false, and by the politicians as equally useful.\u201d<\/em> (Edward Gibbon, historian)

\u201cThe death of a single infant calls into question the existence of God.\u201d <\/em>(Fyodor Dostoevsky, novelist)

\u201cYou, sir, gave us insufficient evidence.\u201d <\/em>(Bertrand Russell, philosopher, when asked what he would say to God to explain his atheism)

\u201cIf that\u2019s who God is, then he should resign and let someone competent take over.\u201d <\/em>(Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz survivor, when told that God cares but won\u2019t intervene in our world)

\u201cIf people cease to believe in God, they don\u2019t believe in nothing. They believe in anything.\u201d <\/em>(G.K. Chesterton, social critic)

\u201cThere is perhaps no better proof for the existence of God than the way year after year he survives the way his professional friends promote him.\u201d (<\/em>Frederick Buechner, concerning pastors)<\/em>

\u201cNow I know in part [that is, with all my questions and doubts]; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.\u201d <\/em>(The apostle Paul, I Corinthians 13:12)

\u201cWhen they saw him, they worshipped him [Jesus]. But some doubted.\u201d <\/em>(Jesus\u2019 disciples after the resurrection, Matthew 28:17)

A father whose son is afflicted by a demon says to Jesus:
\u201cIf you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.\u201d<\/em>
Jesus replies, \u201c\u2019If you can?\u2019 Everything is possible for the one who believes.\u201d
To which the father says, \u201cI do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!\u201d<\/em>
Jesus then heals his son.
(Matthew 9:21-24)

Faith and doubt are not radical opposites. They go together, in fact, like macaroni and cheese. Those who declare, \u201cI have no doubts at all,\u201d may actually be some of the scariest people we know.

Doubt may make us think more deeply.\u00a0And study more diligently.\u00a0And pray more fervently.\u00a0\u00a0

Spiritual I\u2019m-not-sure-ness<\/em>, in other words, may actually drive us into the arms of God.\u00a0Or at least into an understanding of God that is more consistent with his true character and identity.

Realistically, our goal must not be certainty<\/u><\/em>, but trust<\/u><\/em> \u2013 trust wisely placed in a Voice that is genuinely worthy of our trust.

When you think about it, we all believe in such a Voice, whether we acknowledge it or not. Who are you listening to? Who is shaping and guiding your life?

You may still be \u201clistening\u201d to your parents, even if they\u2019re no longer alive. Or a favorite teacher. Or a wise mentor. Or a special author or poet. The Voice you heed may be that of a famous religious figure, or one who is hardly known at all. Or perhaps you\u2019re utterly reliant on your own inner voice. You obey your gut or your instincts or your conscience to make your way through life.

In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus multiples loaves and fishes to feed a vast crowd. The people are thrilled. He\u2019s got them (in every sense of the word) eating right out of his hand.

Then he completely mangles this perfect public relations moment. Jesus announces that he is the Bread of Life. He is the meal for which they are actually famished.\u00a0

The people are now less than thrilled. This is not what they signed up for. \u201cFrom this time many of his disciples\u00a0turned back and no longer followed him\u201d (John 6:66).

What Jesus says next seems poignant, even painful: \u201c\u2019You do not want to leave too, do you?\u2019\u00a0Jesus asked the Twelve.\u201d

Shoot-from-the-hip Peter immediately responds,\u00a0\u201cLord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.\u00a0We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.\u201d

Twenty centuries have come and gone since that moment, and it\u2019s hard to identify any other candidates who are as worthy of our trust as Jesus.

The Quaker scholar Elton Trueblood echoes, \u201cA Christian is a person who, with all the honesty of which he is capable, becomes convinced that the fact of Jesus Christ is the most trustworthy thing he knows.\u201d

We will hear many voices today and in the days ahead. Which voice is truly worthy of our trust?

Our faith will never be perfect in this world. We will never be able to hold on to Jesus without at least occasional doubt.

But he will keep his promise to hold on to us.\u00a0

About that, there\u2019s no doubt at all.\u00a0<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here \u201cI will tell you my secret: I have doubts.\u201d Those are the opening words of John Ortberg\u2019s 2008 book Faith and Doubt. As a general rule, we applaud individuals for such transparency. A confession of doubt these days is regarded as a sign of authenticity. Of course, we don\u2019t really want… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[464,126,141],"class_list":["post-4634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-belief","tag-doubt","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4636,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions\/4636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}