When in doubt?

Some years back, I was on vacation with my daughter.  We had a boat tour set up, paid for in advance, and we were very excited about it.  When we arrived, they did not have our reservation showing in their computer, and they would not give us our boarding passes.  I had the printed confirmation number in hand, I could show the paid receipt, but they would not allow me the passes I was entitled to.  The timing was getting tight, the boat was going to leave shortly, and for some reason I still don't understand, the agent in charge had dug in her heels and just simply would not believe the proof in front of her eyes, because her computer said otherwise.

My cousin, who is a travel agent, had gotten us the reservation.  (Here is a good reason to get a travel agent to make your reservations for you, by the way.  A little plug for what she does so very, very well.)  So I called her and said, "HELP!!!!"

I had doubt that it would work out in time, because as I said, the time was short.  But I also had faith in her, and I knew she would have our best interests at heart.  I believed that if anyone could fix this problem, she could.  She dropped everything and was able, in a few short minutes, to accomplish what I could not, and could never have, gotten done on my own.  We got our boarding passes, and we were on our way for a fun afternoon.  The day was saved!

Faith and doubt.  They are not mutually exclusive.  If we can believe in the power of another human to accomplish the seemingly impossible, how much greater is our God?  And how much more faith can we have that the one who created us in his image will have the best plan for our life?

Every person has doubt.  Even those closest to Jesus, those who followed him to the cross, had doubt.  Doubting Thomas had to put his fingers into the holes inflicted on Jesus before he could believe that the apparition before him was real.  But in times of doubt, you can still believe that God has a plan for your life, and that things will work out as they should.

I read a quote yesterday which very succinctly summed up the dichotomy of faith and doubt.  Pastor Ed Delph wrote,

"Faith is not the absence of doubt.  Faith is the presence of belief."

There is simply no better way to put it.

Today I am grateful for doubt.  It builds my faith, and brings me closer to the trust God wants me to feel in him.