Following Mother Teresa’s death in 1997, personal letters emerged revealing that throughout her ministry she often distrusted that God heard her prayers or even existed at all.

Likewise, the psalmist here doesn’t appear very trusting of God’s willingness to show up and save the day. But maybe the psalmist, as well as Mother Teresa, was exercising a different kind of trust, a deeper kind.

Theologian Peter Rollins says that many religions hold a place for doubt, but what is so fascinating about Christianity is that even God doubts God. At the cross, Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

So when you express doubt, when you feel like God isn’t there, when you cry with the psalmist, “Don’t neglect me! Don’t leave me alone,” you’re joining with Jesus himself as a true acquaintance of the cross.

This requires a deeper trust — a trust that God will accept a real prayer, a trust that God is God and can handle your concrete and messy faith, and a trust that God is just that relentless in giving grace.

By Blake Tommey from D365