Doubt & Devotion
Experiencing Resurrection: Part 5
March 10, 2026
After eight days, his disciples were again in a house, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. Don't be faithless but believe."
Thomas responded to Jesus, "My Lord and my God!"
~ John 20:19-29
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I’m a bit skeptical. Is that so wrong? I call it being realistic, and so far, it’s worked out pretty well for me.
“Doubting Thomas.” That’s what they call me. But it was just as hard for the others to believe. And what about you? Did you believe the first time you heard that somebody had come back to life after three days in the grave? Call me what you want, but I say, who wouldn’t doubt that?
Like I said, my skepticism has served me well. It’s easy to be devoted when everything is going well. But how long do you stick with something when times get tough? Why doesn’t anybody remember that I’m also “Devoted Thomas?”
We followed Jesus through Galilee. People were being fed and healed, and we hung on his every word. When a messenger came saying Lazarus was dying, Jesus decided to go to Bethany, even though it was dangerous. We told him he was crazy. But he wouldn’t hear it.
I knew there was no way to turn him back. So I said, “Let us go… that we may die with him.”
Even in my doubt, I was determined to follow.
You know what happened. Jesus raised Lazarus. But the tension grew. The leaders plotted to kill him. At the Passover meal, he spoke of leaving us. I asked, “Lord, how can we know the way?” He said he was the way. I didn’t understand, but I was determined to follow him.
Then they arrested him. The rest of us fled. After he died, I was paralyzed by grief.
Mary said the tomb was empty. The others said they had seen him. I couldn’t believe it. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands… I will not believe.”
I wasn’t trying to be difficult. I was trying to survive the grief.
A week later, we were together behind locked doors. Suddenly, he was there.
“Peace be with you.”
He turned to me. He told me to see his hands, to touch his side. I didn’t even have to.
“My Lord and my God!”
In that moment, everything changed. I saw God in him. The one who had walked with us, wept with us, and now stood before us bearing his scars. He didn’t come to shame me for my doubt, but to show me how much I was loved.
Jesus loved me. He loves me. God loves me.
And somehow, that love was stronger than my doubt.
Sometimes it’s still hard to believe, but nothing is ever the same after that.
My doubt didn’t disqualify me. It made me stronger. It taught me the true meaning of faith: to keep showing up even when it doesn’t make sense.
Faith isn’t the opposite of doubt.
Faith carries us through it.