{"id":568,"date":"2010-07-30T07:30:47","date_gmt":"2010-07-30T07:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html"},"modified":"2010-07-30T07:30:47","modified_gmt":"2010-07-30T07:30:47","slug":"adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html","title":{"rendered":"Adam Ellis: Hoping That It’s True"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I decided<\/b> to start this guest-blogger series — which I’m calling “Voices of Doubt” and which features friends of mine telling their own stories of doubt — I thought immediately about asking Adam Ellis<\/a> to participate. Matthew Paul Turner<\/a> introduced us last year, and what I like about Adam is that he’s honest and forthright about his questions even though he’s also a pastor. <\/p>\n

As in: the guy who preaches on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Despite a busy week (see below)<\/i>, Adam was kind enough to contribute this week’s guest post. In terms of bio, he comes from a background in youth ministry and currently pastors a church in South Carolina. He’s also a theologian and adjunct religion professor, which means he’s got credentials. More than I have, for sure. <\/p>\n

—————-<\/p>\n

\"adamellis.jpg\"<\/span>My friend Phil’s father died this week. <\/b>His dad had been having a few
\nhealth problems; still, Phil is shocked. When he called to tell me the
\nnews, I didn’t know what to say, so I just offered a few of the
\nsentiments that most of us say when friends lose people they love. Phil
\nwas gracious toward my sputtering clich\u00e9s of comfort. <\/p>\n

“It’s still surreal,” he said. <\/p>\n

I asked him if he had told his kids.<\/p>\n

“Yeah,
\nI told them.” He went on to tell me that his nine-year-old daughter was
\ndevastated, and that she’d been inconsolable since hearing the news.
\nWhen he told his 4-year old son, his face turned sad for a moment, but
\nthen he asked his father if he could play Lego Star Wars on his Wii. <\/p>\n

“I
\nguess in some ways,” I said, “it would be great to not fully understand
\nwhat’s happening.” And then I added, “Or at least it would be good to
\nbelieve all of the things we say about death without any of the cynicism.” <\/p>\n

Phil
\nwas quiet for a moment. “You know,” he said, “These are the times when
\npeople like you and I hope that what we say really is true.” <\/p>\n

For
\nme, Phil’s statement — an emotional mix of belief, doubt, questions,
\nuncertainly, and hope — define faith perfectly. I wouldn’t have thought
\nthis five years ago. That’s because I was under the impression that
\ndoubt, uncertainty, and questions were antagonists of faith, and not a
\npart of its definition.<\/p>\n

I was never explicitly taught that, but it was very easily assumed.
\nI’ve been a follower of Jesus for most of my life. My father’s a
\npreacher and my mother is a social worker with a private Christian
\norganization. For more than ten years, I’ve worked as a minister to
\nyouth and college students, and now I’m the preaching minister for a
\nchurch in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

For a long time, it felt like I was almost
\nhard-wired for faith, which was a good thing, since I was one of those
\npeople who believed that pastors and ministry folk weren’t supposed to
\ndoubt. I was under the impression that it was my job to believe and
\nalways be available to help other people believe.<\/p>\n

But that was a fairytale.  <\/p>\n

As
\nyou might imagine, I was shocked when I started wrestling with doubt.
\nAnd even more shocked that it didn’t go away. Questions began rolling in
\nlike storm clouds. Oddly enough, it wasn’t my reading of some of the
\nbetter arguments against Christianity, faith and God by people like
\nRichard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens that cracked my armor of
\ncertainty. Neither was it problems stemming from new scientific
\ndiscoveries, or contradictions in the Biblical text that caused the walls
\nof faith to begin to crumble.<\/p>\n

I’m not an “every-thing
\nmust be interpreted literally” fundamentalist or a “everything must be
\ninterpreted as meaning-filled myth that never actually happened”
\nliberal. I appreciate that there are different genres of literature in
\nthe Bible, and have an appreciation for nuance and context. I don’t
\nneed to book of Job (which is mostly written as Hebrew poetry) to be a
\nliteral, historical event to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.<\/p>\n

I
\nthink the real problem is that I had a very wrong idea of what faith is
\nin the first place. Many of us speak as if “faith” is the opposite of
\n“doubt”;  a synonym for “certainty.” However, I am learning that faith
\nand doubt are like eternal dance partners, bound together in a dance
\nthat is somehow made more graceful, more meaningful, and more beautiful
\nbecause it is these two who are dancing.<\/p>\n

Faith is relational, and as
\nsuch, is related to words like trust, confidence, hope,<\/i> and commitment<\/i>. There can really be no faith in certainty, because no
\ntrust is necessary.  Everyone has faith, to some degree or another, in
\nsome-THING (or another). It’s a question of what you trust in; what you
\nhope for; what you have confidence in.  <\/p>\n

I’ve begun to believe that
\ncertainty is an illusion that we are tempted to create for ourselves. 
\nIt’s a smokescreen whereby I get to label myself as “just being
\nobjective,” and render anyone else who doesn’t agree with me as either
\n“the enemy,” or “too stupid to see what’s so obviously true.” It’s the
\nway that we justify worshiping the idol of our own understanding, and
\nfeed our obsession with being “right.” <\/p>\n

At the end of the day though,
\nit’s a self-defeating ploy that we use to avoid the risk involved in things
\nlike trust, hope, love, commitment, and faith. I’m becoming more
\ncomfortable admitting that to say I have “faith” is to admit to
\nuncertainty.  <\/p>\n

“I hope that what we say really is true.”<\/p>\n

In fact, I’m
\nbetting my life on it.<\/p>\n

—————-<\/p>\n

Thank you, Adam.<\/b> Follow Adam on Twitter<\/a> and on Facebook<\/a>. And check out his blog at adamellis.blogspot.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Previous posts in the “Voices of Doubt” series…<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2022 Nicole Wick on Breaking Up with God<\/a>
\u2022 Anna Broadway on Doubt and Marriage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I decided to start this guest-blogger series — which I’m calling “Voices of Doubt” and which features friends of mine telling their own stories of doubt — I thought immediately about asking Adam Ellis to participate. Matthew Paul Turner introduced us last year, and what I like about Adam is that he’s honest and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-guests","category-voices-of-doubt"],"yoast_head":"\nAdam Ellis: Hoping That It's True - O Me of Little Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adam Ellis: Hoping That It's True - O Me of Little Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I decided to start this guest-blogger series — which I’m calling “Voices of Doubt” and which features friends of mine telling their own stories of doubt — I thought immediately about asking Adam Ellis to participate. Matthew Paul Turner introduced us last year, and what I like about Adam is that he’s honest and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"O Me of Little Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-30T07:30:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/files\/import\/adamellis.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Boyett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Adam Ellis: Hoping That It's True - O Me of Little Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Adam Ellis: Hoping That It's True - O Me of Little Faith","og_description":"When I decided to start this guest-blogger series — which I’m calling “Voices of Doubt” and which features friends of mine telling their own stories of doubt — I thought immediately about asking Adam Ellis to participate. Matthew Paul Turner introduced us last year, and what I like about Adam is that he’s honest and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html","og_site_name":"O Me of Little Faith","article_published_time":"2010-07-30T07:30:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/files\/import\/adamellis.jpg"}],"author":"Jason Boyett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html","name":"Adam Ellis: Hoping That It's True - O Me of Little Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/files\/import\/adamellis.jpg","datePublished":"2010-07-30T07:30:47+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-30T07:30:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/f69eb4f788db541ff47d2f5d01cad5e7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/files\/import\/adamellis.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/files\/import\/adamellis.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/adam-ellis-on-hoping-that-its-true.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Adam Ellis: Hoping That It’s True"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/","name":"O Me of Little Faith","description":"A blog by Jason Boyett about Doubt, Christianity, Culture & Writing","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/f69eb4f788db541ff47d2f5d01cad5e7","name":"Jason Boyett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a5a\/a5a647d97bed4014325bf9a1fb0b6900x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a5a\/a5a647d97bed4014325bf9a1fb0b6900x96.jpg","caption":"Jason Boyett"},"description":"Jason Boyett is a writer, speaker, and the author of several books, including O Me of Little Faith (Zondervan), and the Pocket Guide series (Jossey-Bass). His work has appeared in Salon, Paste, The Daily Beast, Relevant, and a variety of other publications. He has also appeared on the History Channel and National Geographic Channel. Jason lives in Texas with his wife and two kids. Follow him at twitter and jasonboyett.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/author\/jboyett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}