Room For DoubtSample

Sliding on Doubt

Os Guinness uses ice as a fitting illustration for the nature of doubt. Imagine a small river that’s been frozen over by a winter storm. You have a grassy bank on one side and a rocky bank on the other, with an iced-over river separating the two. If you crawled out onto the slippery ice, you would find that, in stumbling for your footing, you could slide between the two sides of the river. You could slide closer to the grassy bank or you could slide closer to the rocky bank.

Doubt is like the ice between the two banks. The grassy bank represents belief, and the rocky bank symbolizes unbelief. Doubting is the place in between belief and unbelief. In a sense, doubt is neutral. It can slide you closer to belief or closer to unbelief. I made the mistake of assuming that doubt, especially living in doubt as I did, indicated unbelief. But that’s simply not the case. Doubt is like ice. Ice is neutral. It can slide you closer to God or it can slide you farther away from Him.

If you ask people the question, “What is the opposite of love?” most of them will respond, “Hate.” But hate is not the opposite of love. Indifference is. If you ask people, “What is the opposite of faith?” most of them will respond, “Doubt.” I would suggest that the opposite of faith is not doubt; it is unbelief. Whether you are on the grassy bank of belief in God or the rocky bank of unbelief, you are in a secure and certain place. Your feet are planted on the ground of belief or unbelief. There is no instability or sliding around. But to be in doubt is to be in the middle between the two banks on the slippery surface of uncertainty. When you are on the ice of doubt, you can slide either way.