Doubt & Faith (Fox or Hedgehog)

My friend and I recently had an interesting conversion about doubt and faith. We've come to the conclusion that without doubt, our faith can tend towards a know-it-all form of arrogance and without faith, we cannot truly participate in the story of the kingdom of God on earth.

Doubt stokes our internal wonderment, a desire for learning and growth - leading to change and development. The absent of doubt, leads to a feeling of superiority - a form of unteachable pride. Jesus teaches us to guard against this, we are to be humble and I think our humbleness helps to ensure we remain teachable. This humbleness enables us to be free to question our assumptions and is an antidote for our prejudices and predispositions.

Elton Trueblood said, "Faith is not belief without proof, but trust with reservations." I have faith because I see the proof of God's love towards his creation all around us, as Saint Paul states in Romans 1:20; "for since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made."

Faith coupled with doubt enables us to explore all of God's created world and continually realign ourselves with the story of the kingdom of God on earth. We can refuse to settle into the pattern of a hedgehog thinker as explained in Philip Tetlock's, Expert Political Judgment:

Hedgehog thinkers are thinkers who "know one big thing," aggressively extend the explanatory reach of that one big thing into new domains, display bristly impatience with those who "do not get it," and express considerable confidence that they are already pretty proficient forecasters, at least in the long term.

Enabled by faith, our freedom to doubt lets us take advantage of what Tetlock calls fox like thinking;

Being thinkers who know many small things (tricks of their trade), are skeptical of grand schemes, see explanation and prediction not as deductive exercises but rather as exercises in flexible "ad hocery" that require stitching together diverse sources of information, and are rather diffident about their own forecasting prowess.

Hospitality for Children in a Homeless Situation

Another great opportunity to show compassion to children is coming up soon. This will be the second time that our church community has had the privilege to volunteer with Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN). It’s a great opportunity to live missionally and serve children who are in a homeless situation.

IHN provides homeless families with children a safe, homelike shelter where that family can stay together and share meals, as parents work with a case manager to acquire employment and affordable housing, regain independence and self-sufficiency.

There are five basic components to an IHN program:

• Hosts – Families are hosted by local congregations, who provide lodging, meals, and welcoming care.
  
• Day Center – During the day, guests use the day center – where a specially trained employee provides case management services. All the day center guests are encouraged to pursue employment and affordable housing, tend to preschool children, shower, and do laundry. The day center provides guests with a mailing address and a base for housing and employment searches. Some guests are employed during the day, while older children attend school.
  
• Volunteers – This is where we play a vital role:
  o Cooking and serving meals
  o Playing with children or helping them with homework
  o Interacting with guests, with respect and compassion
  
• Social Service Agencies – Local social service agencies refer families to IHN and also nay help guests find housing, jobs, and benefits.
  
• Transportation – The IHN van is available to transport guests to and from the day center.

The benefits to volunteers, congregations, and the community are numerous. As I see it, the benefits can all be summed up by one word compassion; "to bear with" or "to suffer with” - actively. Watch this short video and I think you’ll get an idea why I think IHN is a good opportunity to Live Missionally.