Are you a doubter or believer? When a friend shares something that teeters between could-be-true and could-be-false, which side do you tip? When someone gives you instructions, do you think there could be a better way? Do you believe just about everything you see? Do you see a shred of truth in everything – or a gaping hole where truth would fit?

I’ve decided whether you’re a doubter or believer isn’t necessarily tied to whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist. I have absolutely no scientific data to back this up, so I’m warning you ahead of time not to make broad-sweeping generalizations on this one. But I’m basically a glass-half-full person…and yet I think I’m more of a doubter than a believer.

I prefer to think of myself as a discriminatory thinker.

Doubt doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. It helps me discern. I want to take what someone tells me or what I hear on the TV or read on the internet and test it. I want to measure it against what I know to be true (you see, I believe some things to be absolute truth!).

But doubt can be a negative reaction as well, because it easily appears as judgment. When I ask follow-up questions to someone’s statement or story, I can easily stir up feelings of inadequacy. My reaction can be offensive…even when that’s not my intention.

Yet I don’t want to be gullible and soak up all information around me, accepting it as fact. I could absorb many half-truths until reality is diluted and unrecognizable.

There’s a little doubter and believer in each of us. I doubt when something doesn’t ring true as I measure it against what I’ve already accepted as truth. I doubt because of what I believe. And those who jump quickly to believe typically doubt anyone who would share something with them (or the television networks, radio, internet, or newspapers) would share anything but the truth. They’re doubtful about inaccurate information.

If you’re struggling with faith, think about whether you’re a doubter or believer. Are you scrutinizing everything you hear and read, wondering how one idea seems to contradict another or seeing hypocrisy in what a person says she believes and how she behaves? Or are you soaking up everything anyone tells you about God, regardless of the source and without measuring it against the truth of the Bible?

And if you’re mature in your faith journey, think about whether you’re a doubter or believer. Have you become so rigid that you’ve placed boundaries around God so that you don’t look for him in fresh places…so that he doesn’t consume every area of your life to prune and grow you? Have you become so comfortable in listening to specific teachers that you believe all that is taught, no longer making the effort to discern whether it’s all absolute truth?

Check yourself. Better yet, check in with God. He seeks you and wants you to believe him. And he wants you to doubt anything outside his will. In order to know what’s outside his will, you need to know his will. In order to know what’s inconsistent with God’s character, you have to know his character.

Will you doubt or believe?

A discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth. Proverbs 17:24 (NIV)