On doubt

young person

In March, the Justice and International Mission Unit hosted a Social Justice Forum at Aitken College. The theme explored during the day was “Our Global Neighbour.” Sarah Lockwood, Schools Project Worker, offered this reflection at the beginning of the day:

Every day we are asked to make decisions and to give our opinion
We must choose subjects and classes
that could shape our future
We are asked to think about what we want to do
who we are going to be
how we are going to live
“Don’t doubt yourself” they say
“Be strong”
People tell us it is good to be sure.
To know what we think about issues.

But life is complex and changing
Issues are complicated
Does justice for some mean justice for all?
Do I have to know it all right now?
I know I am blessed, but sometimes I don’t feel that way.

What if…
What if we invited more space for doubt in our lives?
What if we adopted a posture of doubt?
What if we admitted we don’t need to know everything in this moment
That admitting we don’t know might be the best thing we ever did.
Because when we don’t know, we stop.
We breathe.
We ask questions.
We start again.
We look to our neighbour with curiosity.
We start to humanise people and hear their individual stories.

Casey Gerald said in a TED talk recently:

“…it will not be our blind faith but our humble doubt that shines a little light into the darkness of our lives and our world, and lets us raise our voice to whisper, or to shout, or to say simply: there must be another way.”

Sarah Lockwood

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