Book Group: The God Who Weeps Epilogue

Help Thou Mine Unbelief

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this epilogue is one of my favorite parts of the book.  Maybe it's because the authors have the courage to say what so many of us are frightened to admit.  Some of us feel like outsiders.  Some of us  feel like there is something wrong with us because everybody else seems to get it and we don't.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a church of testifying.  Once a month, an entire worship service is devoted to members of the congregation standing and saying, "I know."  We are told that as we testify, our knowledge and our testimonies grow.  But what if you don't know?  What if you have doubts?  What if you believe and want it to be true, but you can't proclaim it with certainty?  What if we will never know in this life?  Does that mean we have no place at the table?

The authors share that many people will live in doubt, but that doubt does not mean that we can't experience miracles.  In Mark, we read of a father who brought his son to Jesus to be healed.  Jesus didn't say, "Sorry you don't have a perfect knowledge so I can't do anything for you."  He said,"If though canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."  To which the father replied,"I believe; help thou mine unbelief."  Essentially, he said, here's what I can bring to the table now.  Help me to gain more. Help me to believe enough that my son can be healed.

There may even be advantages to doubt.  If your knowledge has never been tested, how do you know how strong it is?  If you take things for granted, do you completely realize the miracle?

Perhaps the world cannot be so readily divided into believers and doubters.  We may be closer tot he truth in recognizing that most individuals are divided in their own souls between belief and doubt, just as the father Mark describes.  We certainly do not profess any certain knowledge and confess our kinship with Keats.  Like him, we know we are "straining at particles of light in the midst of a great darkness."  And yet, what we have presented is a version of life's meaning that makes sense to us.
(page 123)

I've tried to make these chapter posts about the book and about my responses to the ideas in the book, but today, I need to link to a post by someone like me, who has doubts and struggles, but is finding that she is where she needs to be.  Read this.

Personally, I know very little.  But as I've accepted doubt, I've grown immensely.  I know that I have a divine destiny.  I know that there is something bigger than me, something that calls to me with love and compassion.  Something that calls me to love and compassion.  Beyond that, I'm not so sure.  But I choose love and that is making me a better person.

Questions for discussion or personal reflection:  

1.  What do you know?

2.  What do you doubt, but choose to act on?

3.  How can we make the church a safer place for doubters?

4.  What did you love about this epilogue?

5.  Was there anything that you didn't like or that made you uncomfortable?