“Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.”
Paul Tillich
Doubt lies somewhere between belief and disbelief. It involves uncertainty, distrust, and the lack of sureness in what you know, do, feel, or decide. Doubt questions what you believe as well as your thoughts, feelings, and decisions. It is the rascal responsible for delaying or rejecting a decision based on the fear of mistake. So how can doubt be an element of faith?
Doubt crippled my dancing career. I was seventeen before I slow danced. A decision based on the fear of mistake or embarrassment prevented me from approaching a girl. It was a decision based on doubt. That decision resulted from focusing on everything that could go wrong.
In other words, giving more thought to the bad instead of good is bad.
A decision involves weighing the options equally then choosing. Doubt that permeates fear is bad doubt. It essentially hijacks the thinking process until the thought of failure takes a seat on the couch. The longer that thought stays, the harder it is to move. At this point, doubt even questions the people trying to help.
This is bad because I move from neutral to reverse. To move back to neutral, shut-up, sit down, and start doing the opposite. It you weren’t praying before, now’s the time.
Temptation is that person, place, or thing that say’s, “Over here.” It alone is not dangerous until the flirting begins; it is the prelude to action. Only execution takes flirtation to the danger zone. Flirting with temptation is not advisable, unless you are prepared to lose.
Between feeling and action, there is a decision to act or not. “Do I dance or not?” This is an intersection worth visiting. It is worth visiting because all the tools are designed to pass through this intersection. Doubt is agathokakological. That’s a $5 word that means doubt, like faith, is both good and bad depending on you. Weighing a list of pros and cons is good thing to do, if you do it. A tool, like doubt, is only as good as the user.