America’s Funniest Home Videos has been on the air for more than 30 years thanks to two facts: 1. People do bonehead stuff. 2. People enjoy watching others do bonehead stuff. So we see humans bounce from rooftops onto trampolines, steer bicycles into trees and snap ropes while attempting to swing across shallow creeks.
I remember a wedding clip of a rather husky lady climbing up onto a table. She had faith. She was a firm believer that those spindly table legs would hold her ample frame as she toasted the bride and groom. To the delight of viewers everywhere, they didn’t. In each episode people place unwavering faith in bicycles, tree branches and little kids with whiffle ball bats. But faith is only as good as the object in which it’s placed.
Maybe you say, my faith is in God. I’m crammed so full of faith that doubt can’t survive in me. I’m surprised God hasn’t already taken me up to Heaven.
Genesis 5:24 (NIV) says,
“Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” That’s me. Any day now I’m going up. My friends will be so impressed!
Or maybe you think, Doubt? How did you know? My faith was once vibrant, bulletproof. And then…I watched cancer do its thing. My wife left. My brother died.
Often doubt can be traced to this: How could there be a God when—fill in the blank. One gentleman told me how he’d been pulled over for driving with his dog on his lap. The officer issued a sizeable ticket. “What kind of God can let this happen?” he asked. “I’m done with faith.” But is God a cosmic plumber who should show up and fix everything? Perhaps you have legitimate questions and reason for doubt. Maybe someone you’ve looked up to has fallen. Maybe you can’t see how God and science can be compatible.
Today, doubt is now considered more noble than faith. We have “honest doubts” and “blind faith.” Faith can’t be honest? Doubt can’t be blind? Lesslie Newbigin wrote, “One does not learn anything except by believing something, and—conversely—if one doubts everything one learns nothing.”
We seem obsessed with certainty. But there’s far too much that science can’t explain for it to garner our complete trust. Last week a young atheist asked my daughter-in-law, “Do Christians believe in science and medicine?” Well, yes. We’re thankful for them both. You can’t study the history of science or medicine without encountering a stunning array of brilliant and compassionate Christians. Science tells us what the world is like; Christianity tells us what it means. Dominic Done says, “Science doesn’t explain away God, it just shows us how creative and beautiful he is.”
Hebrews 11:3 (NLT) says,
“By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.”
I pray you’ll have faith. Not in ropes or bicycles or table legs. But in an awesome God who loves you. Start by lying on your back late at night. Look at the sky. And get lost in the wonder. If you’re on a trampoline, make sure there’s no one about to bounce you off from the rooftop.
