by Rachel Stockton

Created on: June 29, 2008

In THE LIFE OF POETRY, Muriel Rukeyser asserts that "The life of Jesus; the life of Buddha; the life of Lincoln, or Gandhi, or Saint Francis of Assisi, give us the intensity that should be felt in a lifetime of concentration. . . .These lives, in their search and purpose, offer their form, offer their truths. They reach us as hope."

After her death, it was discovered that Mother Teresa "confessed" some of her spiritual doubts in her diaries and letters. Some have jumped on that revelation as being sort of a victory flag for non-belief. For me, however, it only makes her faith that much more remarkable. Despite her doubts, she had faith that she was doing what she was meant to be doing, that she was living the life she was intended to live. The fact that the "weakness" of doubt was transformed into a life of incredible strength and faith gives me the assurance that doubt and faith, strength and weakness, are not mutually exclusive.

In his book, LINCOLN'S MELANCHOLY, Joshua Wolf Shenk does an outstanding job of chronicling Abraham Lincoln's lifelong battle with depression. He tells us that Lincoln was driven by his mental demons to the verge of suicide, yet pulled himself back, certain that to "escape" his mental anguish would mean he would abdicate what he was destined to become. Interestingly, he had no idea what exactly he was meant to pursue, yet he had the faith and strength to realize that that was largely irrelevant, that when the time came for recognition, he would understand.

Weakness becomes strength out of humility. Lincoln never accused the north of being "right", and the south of being "wrong." Indeed, he stressed that one side might be right, but both could be wrong. He drew strength from the Book of Job, the biblical treatise on suffering. Interestingly, God never does answer Job's big question: "Why?" But, what he DOES let Job know is that all is not for naught, that there is a purpose, although it may remain hidden to us.

We like to think that we have things "figured out". The "unknowing" leads us into a kind of psychological limbo that is, quite frankly, uncomfortable. We would rather believe that we will know ( if not now, then certainly later) the purpose behind our struggle, behind our suffering. But true faith, by definition, is a belief in something not seen, in something that we cannot see clearly in the present. Faith simply cannot be faith without some inkling of doubt, some level of discomfort.

Sometimes it's faith that things, will,

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