The Gift of SELF DOUBT

I suspect that many of you have rarely, if ever, heard of a perspective quite like what this article will discuss.  If so, I wouldn’t need to be talking about it today.  😉  Following up on my last article—“Doubting Darwin”—I wish to pursue this idea of doubting a bit further.  Have you ever personally noticed that you often second guess yourself or some action or position you have taken?  That is not always a bad thing.  In fact, what I’m writing about here runs opposite from the typical psychological approach that drives most people’s thinking and behavior.  Does this at least mentally challenge you to read further?  When you think about it, SELF DOUBT is actually a great gift from GOD!

I am NOT writing this in support of doubting GOD; that was Darwin’s problem.  I am writing this today in support of doubting SELF.  If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we are NOT GOD!  We don’t know everything, see everything, have all power or have the ability to be in all places at all times.  This very fact makes it impossible to disprove GOD.  We can doubt that there is a GOD that loves us and cares for His Creation, yet what good does that even serve us personally, much less how we interact with others?  If GOD is not Good and JESUS was not who He claimed to be, then you may as well give up on anything meaningful in your life!  You have to start your thinking somewhere.  Given what we can see and the scientific facts we can know, it takes much less faith to believe in an Eternal Personal GOD than to believe in eternal impersonal matter.

Please do not make the common mistake of transferring your personal doubts to your belief about GOD.  We all, even scientists in various disciplines, live much of life by faith.  Because not all is sight, we will have doubts and sometimes even second guess what we have come to think.  Let this be a friend to you as a gift from GOD and not a defeating thought that would paralyze you from proper action or push you into an ill-advised attitude of pride.  There is so much we need to learn, and learn to think about further than we so often do.  What we really need is to learn to think GOD’s thoughts after Him.  We can do this particularly from what we know is His Revelation—the Bible.

The very center verse in the Bible (Psalm 118:8) tells us that it is “better to trust in the LORD, than to put [our] confidence in man.”  That includes confidence in our self.  We dare not reach a point where we think we have all the answers.  We need to be teachable people, especially if we hope to learn and grow.  We need to be willing to constantly learn and improve who we are.  If we quickly make judgments about people and things, then we likely will find that time proves many of our judgments wrong.  I made the mistake at the beginning of my personal tragedy of thinking that more people understood this Truth and believed as I believe, especially those who claimed to believe it.  Time and further personal tragedy has proven otherwise.

Self doubt will keep you from making many mistakes, though if not tempered by Truth, it will push you to agnosticism or apathy.  It may even push you to the foolish place of atheism.  This is a dangerous place to be if you then fall into the trap of exalting your own position and end up acting out in some way, regardless of how you may try to justify it philosophically or religiously.  Seung-Hui Cho was there philosophically and so was Nadal Malik Hasan, with his additional religious justification.

Friend, be thankful for the gift of Self-Doubt!  Do not think that the problem is merely you needing to work on your Self-esteem—that is a lie and will hurt you and others around you!  You must accept yourself as having value as GOD has made you—in His Image, and learn to live as your CREATOR intends in this fallen and imperfect world.  That is proper confidence—in HIM!