Believing Thomas

This Sunday we are looking at the poster child of doubt. Just as Judas is associated with being a traitor, Thomas is associated with doubt. If you are the one in your group who offers the skeptical or cynical opinion you might hear someone in the group look at you and say, "Well, there is old 'Doubting Thomas.'" Doubt can be a paralyzing and dehabilitating thing. Not that all doubt is bad. In the bible half the Psalms are prayers that echo some kind of doubt. However, doubt can go toxic and lead to losing hope and joy.In our text we see that in Thomas. Thomas is so lost, feels so abandoned and so hopeless that while the other disciples gathered on the Sunday of the resurrection, Thomas did not. Why was he not with the others? Was he that forlorn? Did he just have to be by himself? We don’t know exactly but we do know that he did not abandon the others and that when he was told that Jesus was in fact alive, he showed his real heart when he said I won’t believe unless I put my hands in his wounds. It is almost like he had killed the possibility of hoping again. It is like his heart was so broken at the death of Jesus he wouldn't allow hope to even flicker.So how then does "Doubting Thomas" become "Believing Thomas," the one man in all of scripture who gives the greatest confessional statement of faith about who Jesus is? How can that be? How can his life change so radically. This Sunday we will talk about it. Everyone of us has doubts, has periods of hopelessness and feeling abandoned. Can that be redemptive? How do we move from doubt to faith? Good questions! I hope to see you Sunday when we will explore these things together.Blessings,Jim