Doubt and Faith are Old Friends

-From Beyond Rhetoric: Writings in the Tradition of Kahlil Gibran By Joel McKerrow

A young priest, elegantly dressed in his white robes, had been drawn out of his nearby chapel to query the Prophet, “Please, speak to us of Faith.”

“Faith is not the absence of doubt, though many feel it must be so. For in the place of doubt one feels as far away from faith as the wind would take us. Yet, the act of doubt is never static, it is the stone with no moss that rolls down the mountainside. The mountain will do its work upon that stone, grinding rough edges smooth in the tumbling fall till she meets her resting place on the grass beneath. Soon one will come past who picks her up and admires the stone for her silence and depth.

Doubt and faith are old friends holding hands in their walk along the changing shoreline of life. They are not enemies but are in fact lovers. Faith blossoms as one walks in the tension of the tides that make her full and the tides that lay her waste. For faith becomes that which she is meant to be only in the crucible of doubt held in the furnace of the experience of life. Doubt is the moon on a dark night, bringing faith’s light to the path of the seeker.

Life does not exist without sun and moon.

Faith does not exist without the dark and the light. You need both to find your way home.”

-From Beyond Rhetoric: Writings in the Tradition of Kahlil Gibran By Joel McKerrow

Aline Defiglia LCSW is a licensed, clinical psychotherapist, coach and hypnotherapist who works with individuals and teams for personal and professional transformation. She lives in Chattanooga, TN with her family and works with clients in Chicago, Illinois, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia.