When Faith is Hard to Come By
John 20:19-31 may be my favorite text to preach. It touches the core of what we humans deal with day and day out – hurt. For numerous reasons Thomas feels, as do we, that it’s not enough that God conquers death. For numerous reasons Thomas, as well as us, becomes dogmatic about seeing God in his life. The real truth is his faith is slipping further and further away and he isn’t ready to accept someone else’s understanding of who God is. Thomas just keeps thinking about how God has not shown up in his life. We agonize over our plight, like Thomas, we fret over our predicaments, and pray for God to show God’s self and to help relieve our pain, but sometimes it seems like we are praying to a wall – a wall that never responds. We spend our lives searching to fill this God-shaped void. We spend thousands of dollars, thousands of hours, and thousands of worries trying to figure out meaning for ourselves in life. We calculate our burdens, compare them to our desires, a