Dealing with Doubts
“There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking” says Alfred Korzybski. During the last couple of weeks there was a lot of buzz about some personal letters written by Mother Teresa. In fact Time magazine made this the cover story with the caption: The secret life of Mother Teresa. The subject of her agony and her struggles with her own doubts came to light because of a new book by Kolodiejchuk entitled “Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light”. At the outset I would like to clarify that this article is not a critique of this book or the life of Mother Teresa, but since this issue deals with how spiritual people struggle with doubt, I wanted to discuss the reality of uncertainties in our daily life.
The Book “Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light” basically brings to light some of Mother Teresa’s very personal letters she wrote to some of her confessors and superiors over a period of sixty years. Even though the purpose of this book seems to be a ministry to people who had experienced some doubt, some absence of God in their lives, I personally believe such books tend to over simplify the complexity of faith and spiritual life, and also are misleading because they don’t share the actual context of these letters and the motives or reasons why she wrote them.
“There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking” -Alfred Korzybski.
These are my personal thoughts about this book. 1. This book is making public what Mother Teresa confessed to a very few spiritual mentors, in fact many of these letters were preserved against her wishes. She had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church. 2. We are now presented with a few of her own statements without the context in which she made them. For me the context is everything, if you take things out of context we can easily fall into wild and faulty conclusions.
It is important for us to remember that a holy person does not cease to be human.
Media has this tendency to exaggerate things, when they saw her great actions; they magnified her as an angel and when they discovered such struggles and agony they tend to conclude that may be she was just an ordinary person. It is important for us to remember that a holy person does not cease to be human. I personally think as a sincere follower of Christ Mother Teresa was struggling to connect the dots between her theological background and her own experience of God. Yes, the letters show a very different Mother Teresa than what was presented to us in the past, but that could be expected of any person who is sincerely seeking God and his plans.
If we read the Bible carefully we can find many examples of people who struggled with doubts. Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Jonah, Thomas and many others were not afraid to express their doubts and struggles with uncertainty in life. Doubt in itself is not sinful, it is often the first step to recognize that we do not fully understand and if dealt properly it also has the potential to lead us to deeper level of understanding and spiritual maturity. In Psalm 73 Asaph says “…as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.” The psalmist is describing his struggle with his doubts about God’s goodness in his life, however by the end of this psalm Asaph says “But as for me, it is good to be near God”.
Blaise Pascal says “In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.” I believe in this journey of life we will all have a good share of both these experiences. In 1527 Martin Luther the father of reformation was so paralyzed in doubt that he said “I was close to the gates of death and hell. I trembled in all my members. Christ was wholly lost.” Thankfully Martin Luther did not stay in that stage of doubt forever, his intimacy with Christ brought him back to his mission. If you are struggling with doubts in your spiritual journey, do not despair, do what Habakkuk did, wait for God’s response and you will be amazed how God will change your perspective.
Doubt in itself is not sinful, it is often the first step to recognize that we do not fully understand and if dealt properly it also has the potential to lead us to deeper level of understanding and spiritual maturity.
– – Author: Rev. Francis Burgula – –
