Doubt
An elderly woman and a young man are preparing to board the same, international flight. For the woman, it will be her first time on an airplane. For the young man, there have been too many flights to count. If you were able to assess the woman, she has approximately 80% doubt in the plane's ability to carry her effectively and 2% faith that it will take her safely to visit her grandchildren, studying abroad. She wrings her hands with anxiety the entire, 5 hour flight.
The young man has made this flight over a hundred times due to the travel demands of his job. He knows the flight attendants by name and they bring him his coffee, black, without having to ask. He calmly reads through the SkyMall magazine as the plane ascends. He has approximately 80% faith in the plane's ability to carry him safely and 2% percent doubt.
Based on those assessments, which passenger does the plane carry better?
That's a silly question, right? The answer is obvious. The plane carries both passengers the same. It has to. They're both on the same flight. The plane can't choose to separate one passenger from the other, and care for one better than the other. That's not what it was built to do. To do so would rip the plane apart.
I'm sure you've heard this illustration before, or it's many variations. We use it all the time when we teach our youth group. We as people, though unafraid to express most other things, are often reluctant to voice when we have doubt-particularly something we have already decided to or have been taught to stand behind.
Whether we have believed for years or whether the concept of a loving God is a new one to us, we all have doubt. All of us. When tragedy strikes. When a mortgage goes unpaid. When a job or a friend or a security is lost. Some of us growing up were made to feel as though doubt made us a person of lesser worth in God's eyes. That's just not the case. Not at all.
If you doubt that God exists, that doesn't mean that He will pursue you any less.
If you doubt that He loves you, that doesn't mean that He will begin to love you less.
If you doubt that he sent his son to die for you, that doesn't mean that He wouldn't it all over again, just for you.
If you doubt that God wants you to lead a life full of goodness and blessing and the joy of knowing Him, that doesn't mean He desires that fullness any less for you.
Your doubt doesn't scare Him or turn Him away. We are his passengers, and He will carry us just the same.
"For God so loved the WORLD..."