Wait a minute…

Doubting Thomas gets a bad rap. At times I honestly think that he was the only smart one of the disciples. Basically 10 other people heard that Jesus came back from the dead and said “Cool…” and Thomas was the only one to say, “Wait a minute…”

Thomas was lucky though. He did get to see Jesus’ hole-y (pun intended) self. I have not been so lucky. Of course when I was young it was easier to believe (thus the saying about having the faith of a child). Everyone around me said the Bible was real. Since they were the ones that fed me, I went along. It seemed okay. I mean if Santa can come down the chimney and travel the world in one night, why can’t the son of God be raised from the dead?

Then my mom tells me that Santa is the spirit of love and happiness at Christmas time and I started to say, “Wait a minute…”

And so began round two of constant questioning in my life. (The first being when I was two) Why are we here? How do we know Jesus is God? How can Jesus be God AND God’s son? Why do I have to go to church? Why aren’t all my prayers answered? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? Am I good enough? etc etc etc

Each time I said “Wait a minute…” I did get an answer. Maybe not a complete answer but moving onto a full answer none-the-less. And even though my faith at the beginning of this question and answer time period had hit a bump in the road, each time I asked a new question, I was just a bit closer to a stronger faith.

And now we have Rev. Shannon Karafanda. I still don’t know all the answers and I still ask the hard questions but my faith is stronger than ever and I’m still learning new things about God. I know that for every question I get an answer for, I’ll have five new questions. That’s the beauty of an infinite God, there is no end to the things you can discover.

So next time you say “Wait a minute…”, enjoy taking your time out. Listen to what God is teaching you. You might just be surprised that God shows you something exciting and new.

Until Everyone Hears,