DOUBT & THE IN-BETWEEN
The podcast gets its name from the fact that we live, quite literally, between the creation of Genesis 1-2 and the great re-creation of Revelation 21. The in-between is bloody, brutal, and heart-wrenching at times—perhaps more often than we all care to admit. In the same vein, it can also be an in-between regarding the pain we endure when an old way of life or an old belief has to be changed in order to allow the birth of new, fresh understanding.
Theology is far more fluid than I was led to believe earlier in my life. We have to learn and grow as life happens around us. Things I once believed and positions I once held are called to the mat time after time. There, they are wrestled and teased out until they are able to stand up again. While I absolutely affirm certain tenants of the Christian faith, there is an undeniable grey area, a “between” place, where a large portion of our life and faith gets worked out. If we still believe all of the same things we did three years ago (or even six months ago), it may be a good indication we haven’t done a lot of deep consideration or growth. God is always calling us into new, fresh ways of being in this world. So, if you find yourself with more questions than answers right now, you are in very good company. Maybe you are in the process of putting your thoughts on faith and God back together—you are also in very good company. Everyone is welcome here as we all work together to understand how the love of God is compelling and changing each of us on our journeys.
As we live in the great between, we are called to carry God’s love out into the world. I will devote many more posts, I’m sure, to how this gets worked out, but, for now, I want to close this first post with a story from a few years ago. It took place one evening in my seminary class—it has stuck with me to this day.
Theology is far more fluid than I was led to believe earlier in my life.
A woman was late to my seminary class one night. She walked in as we were dismissed for our first break of the evening. She proceeded to tell me she had been one of a very small group of chaplains on call at one of the largest hospitals in Houston all day. As she was leaving to drive to our class, she received an urgent call requesting that she scrub-in and step into an operating room. The call was for an emergency C-Section that would lead to an uncertain outcome for the baby. She was asked to be there, waiting with holy water, to baptize the infant upon delivery and then to pray with the family during whatever little time the child was alive outside of the womb. As she spoke I was struck by the sheer beauty and holiness of her actions. It reminded me that this is the good work—being ready, hands damp with holy water, to bless the bleeding, crying world.
