Legal Commentary

Today I'm struggling with a case of doubt.  "Doubt attacks" happen at the damndest times.

Tonight, I sit down to read The New Testament, and I do the "rapid thumb through," where you just let the pages rip through your fingers and stop at a random spot. My random spot was Mark, Chapter 9. Part of that chapter tells the story of Jesus' transfiguration, and shortly thereafter, how he healed a boy who was suffering from epilepsy.

And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. "It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" And Jesus said to him, " ?If You can?? All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the boy?s father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief."

I immediately stop reading and make the same prayer.

As my wife heads to bed, I tell her that I'm heading into my home office to catch up on some reading. She makes me promise that I'll not read blogs nor listen to music videos into the wee hours, which I sometimes do if troubled. I promise her that I'll read only one blog and listen to only one video, then head for bed. I read one blog, one that I haven't had time to read much lately. It's one written by my friend Valerie, a psychotherapist from Ohio, who writes of her own struggles.

I am having my own personal struggles with faith.  Don't get me wrong - I still believe - it's just that my burdens have made me weary and sometimes I feel like giving up.

I feel her pain.

I then decide to go to YouTube and listen to one music video and only one. I plug in a search for Alison Krauss videos, hoping to discover one that I haven't heard. I stop my searching on a title of a song by Alison Krauss and Union Station that I've a not heard before, a song entitled "There Is A Reason." It's odd that the search turned up this song, since the person who posted the song misspelled Ms. Krauss' last name as "Krause." Nevertheless, I listen to it, and it speaks strongly to me. Then, in the last stanza, come the lyrics "I do believe, but help my unbelief."

Pure coincidence, obviously. Nothing to see here. You can all move along now.