Do You Question Your Faith?
Written by: Carl Boockholdt
Mike DeVoy was born into a strong Christian family. As a youth, he attended church every Sunday, was saved at age 12 and worked at Christian youth camps during the summer. He was proud to consider himself a Christian and never, ever questioned his faith – at least not until he went away to college.
As a student at Indiana University, Mike worked at the Jewish Center. The one thing that stood out about the center was seeing how seriously the Jewish people took their faith. Seeing their passion and commitment inspired Mike to delve into religious studies at the University. After attending a handful of interesting and informative classes in religious studies, Mike came across a course entitled History of the New Testament. Upon joining the class, Mike discovered the course was taught by a professor who appeared to have an atheist perspective and seemed to be intent on deconstructing the foundations of the Christian belief system. By using the leverage of logic, this professor managed to dislodge the pillars of Mike’s Chrisitanity just enough to introduce a seed of doubt.
This doubt was not the seismic, earth shaking doubt that reduces beliefs to rubble. It was more of an insideous doubt that gnawed away at Mike’s zeal for Christianity like a rat chewing its way through the kitchen wall. He still attended church and professed his faith. But now it felt different. What if the professor was right?
Mike laughlingly describes himself as “a sinner and not a deep thinker”. But he laments that the biggest mistake he made in the aftermath of his New Testament course experience was “…to quit thinking”. Mike goes on to say “I became a lukewarm Christian for 13 or 14 years”. Although Mike continued to attend church and participate in the Christian life he still harbored doubts that had been spawned in the class and, as Mike admits, “things weren’t as clear as before”.
In a series of sermons entitled Faith for Doubters presented last summer, pastor Bret Nicholson explored the topic of doubts about the Christian faith. Mike DeVoy listened intently to each sermon because he was hearing answers to all the questions that had been plaguing him since the university class. Not only did the sermons shed light on Mike’s unanswered questions but they also returned him to the fundamentals of Christianity. Reflecting on the impression the sermons made on him, Mike says, “One Life is a church for sinners. They make it easy to ask the hard questions. (At One Life Church) its ok to be yourself”.
Mike’s Baptism at One Life West – November 16, 2014
Mike’s story is evidence that, for many Christians, even the most devout, doubt can be a barrier to faith. But it also shows that there are answers available for the hard questions. And finding those answers can put your spiritual life back on track. As Mike puts it “I was kind of mixed up for a while…but now I’m ok”.
If you have doubts and questions about Christianity check out Moving From Doubt To Faith . Mike also highly recommends the book The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel.