Put Me Down as A Believer
The small son of a pastor was out playing in the yard before coming in to 
join the family at the supper table. His mother, as usual, told him to go wash his hands. As the little boy headed to the sink he said, “Jesus and germs, that’s all I ever hear around here and I haven’t ever seen either one.”
Seeing is believing.
This Sunday’s Scripture, John 20:19-29 is the story about “doubting Thomas”. Most of us have heard the story of Jesus appearing to a group of His followers when Thomas wasn’t there. Then a few days later Jesus came a second time and showed Thomas the evidence of the nails in His hands and the spear in His side. This caused Thomas to believe. Jesus said, “You believed because you see me. Those who believe without seeing me will be truly blessed.”
How do we believe without seeing?
Believing without seeing is hard. We want to have all the answers. Clarity makes life so much easier.
When the brilliant ethicist John Kavanaugh went to work for three months at “the house of the dying” in Calcutta, he was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. On the first morning there he met Mother Teresa. She asked, “And what can I do for you?” Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him.
“What do you want me to pray for?” she asked. He voiced the request that he had borne thousands of miles from the United States: “Pray that I have clarity.”
She said firmly, “No, I will not do that.” When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So, I will pray that you trust God.”
Mother Teresa’s Prayer for The Clinger
I struggle with looking for clarity. I want to know the answers. As a ‘problem solver’ by nature finding the answers is what I do. Seeking answers is not the problem. The problem is getting hung up on seeking them.
We don’t and never will in this life, have all the answers.
If we can’t have the answers why even bother looking. Wouldn’t it be easier to just float through life not bothering to even look for the answers? I don’t think this is God’s plan for us either. It’s about having faith and trusting in God. In Matthew 17:14-20 Jesus tells His followers that if their “…faith is big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move”.