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In The Karate Kid, Danny LaRusso is trying to learn karate, and begins to study with Mr. Miyagi, the mysterious handyman at his apartment he befriends.
Mr. Miyagi’s teaching techniques, though, are a little unorthodox. Instead of having Danny learn forms or do drills, he has him wax his cars and pain his fence. He also has Danny do these tasks in very specific ways with very specific movements. Whenever Danny tries to do things differently, Mr. Miyagi corrects him.
One day Danny gets fed up and starts to tell Mr. Miyagi off. Mr. Miyagi, though, simply listens and when Danny is done he tells him to wax on and off and paint the fence. Mr. Miyagi then attacks Danny, but following the movements Danny successfully defends. Mr. Miyagi then tells Danny to pain the fence and the same thing happens. All this time, Mr. Miyagi was teaching Danny the techniques he needed, even if Danny didn’t realize it.
It’s not that questioning Mr. Miyagi was wrong. Danny would not have known what he had gained if he hadn’t. The issue was the way which Danny doubted.
It would have been much better for Danny to calmly and respectfully ask, “Can you please tell me why am I doing this? I’m trying to understand what this has to do with karate.” That way he could have gotten his answer without coming off like a jerk.
Every year on the 2nd Sunday of Easter, we always hear the story of Thomas and his doubt. As part of this story, we as the church often focus on what doubt means. Sometimes, as the church, we raise the point that doubt might not actually be bad. After all, Jesus answers Thomas’ doubt.
We should ask ourselves if we are always focusing on the right point though. The issue isn’t so much that Thomas doubts, but instead how it is that Thomas doubts.
Thomas’ doubt isn’t that of complete disbelief. Thomas’ doubting is conditional though. He says that unless he, like the other Disciples, also sees the Resurrected Jesus and touches his hands and his sides, he will not believe. In other words, he needs definitive proof before he can believe that Jesus has returned.
Jesus gives him this opportunity. He appears again, and tells Thomas to put his fingers in his side and see the marks of the nails on his hands.
The interesting thing is that the Gospel does not say Thomas did this. What we do hear is that Thomas is the very first to proclaim Jesus as “My Lord and my God!”
Thomas understands that what has happened is impossible, that only God can do this. He also respects and trusts his teacher. When Jesus shows up, clearly knowing what Thomas had said when He wasn’t there, Thomas listens and observes. He accepts that he was wrong before. He accepts he still needs to learn. He accepts that Jesus is the only one from whom he can gain the Truth.
As with Thomas, it’s fine for us to question. It’s okay for us to doubt. What matters is how we are doing so. Are we respecting God as our teacher, and those whom God has appointed for this task? When we ask questions, are we anticipating learning something or are we set to remain in our unbelief?
It doesn’t matter how old you are or what you do. We all continue to learn in one form or another. We all need to strive to learn more about the hows and whys of our Faith and worship together as well as the whats for our work in the world as Baptized Christians. Thankfully, there are so many resources we have out there, including the teachers God has provided us in our Faith, that can help you in your learning and your training.
Are you ready to have your doubts satisfied and answered? Are you ready to see where your training as followers of the Way has actually been leading? Or will you simply mope in disbelief, not even ready to witness the Truth God is offering you just because it doesn’t fit with your expectations or the way you’ve done things before?
Don’t get bogged down with disbelieving doubt. Instead be open to questioning doubt, the kind of doubt that does accept you can be wrong and also allows you to grow so you can continue learning and come to be ever closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.