I would love to know one’s average doubt quotient. That would be a great stat to be able to ascertain or know about someone.

What does it say about someone when they doubt or question? It could be anything – doubts themselves, doubts people around them, doubts truths, doubts belief structures, doubts reality.

Innovators question; geniuses question. Liberators, leaders, heroes and icons question what is and propel us towards a different “could be”.

But questions and doubts don’t always yield those outcomes.

We quickly get into murky water when trying to assess value to bouts of doubting/questioning. I think some doubting; some questioning; some pondering etc. can be healthy, astute, vital, world-changing. It took doubt and questioning to create social changes or revivals or advances in any number of spheres.

And some can yield perpetual frustration, devastating deviation, or descent away from truth into madness.

1 Corinthians 1:19-20 – “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

James 1:5-6 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”

Doubts and questions can sometimes spin us down where nothing is right-side up. I’ve experienced some of that disillusion and fear and disorientation in my journey. I am thinking today about my “When In Doubt” list – the tenets I’ve chosen to believe, written down, and hold to in the midst of whatever questioning or doubting or wrestling I was doing at the time. Mine usually includes a few core truths I have to hold to.

1. God is real.
2. God is good.
3. I am redeemed and redeemable.
4. God cares about me, is present and all-powerful, and will not leave me.
5. There will be an ultimate resolution.
6. When you can’t do more, it’s ok to just focus on putting one foot in front of the next one.

There may be others, and maybe I’ll put these into a more concrete and eloquent form one day. But for now, just remembering that in the midst of questioning and doubt there are things we can hold to is enough.

And that I like hanging out with the people with high doubt quotients.

-LS