Strong spirits: hard questions

What do you do with your hard questions?  What do you do with your uncertainties and doubts?

Many of us simply ignore them, hope they will go away, or plan to deal with them "sometime."  The problem with that is that the longer we wait to deal with them, the stronger they get, and the more uncertain or confused we get.  I'm thinking about faith issues here, but this truth applies to all areas of life.  Learning to deal with our doubts and questions is an essential part of a good and healthy life.

John the Baptist knew Jesus well.  They were distantly related.  He publicly identified Jesus as the Son of God.  He baptized Jesus.  He even suggested to his own followers that they should follow Jesus.  And when Jesus' popularity began to eclipse his own, he said to his followers, "That's as it should be.  He must increase, and I must decrease."

But later, languishing in prison, unjustly charged, John had questions about Jesus.  John had doubts.  Instead of anguishing over them, he sent two friends to ask Jesus, "Are you the messiah we are waiting for, or should we look for another?"  And Jesus kindly told those two to report to John all that was going on- people healed and delivered, the dead raised, good news preached to the poor.  Essentially, he told them, I am the one, the messiah, the one you are waiting for.  You need look no further.  What a relief that must have been to John.  His time had not been wasted!

So if you have faith questions and doubts, don't stuff them or ignore them. Do what John did... take them to Jesus.  He'll be happy to answer them all!