Unbelief
(in Mark, chapter 9)
My favorite story from the
Christian New Testament
Isn’t easy
A father brings his son
(a parent brings a child)
To Jesus, saying
A demon throws his son into
The fire or the water
Anything destructive, for
The demon wants
To kill the child
To the father, Jesus says
That with faith, the boy
Will be cured,
The demon itself thrown out
To which the father says,
I believe
Help my unbelief
He had been told what to do
What was pat, even a guarantee
But the father’s honesty
Precluded the code
He bravely and with broken heart
Told Jesus what was real
The crowd pressed in
There was no more time for
Conversation, not even for proof
Of faith
But what we know is that
Jesus healed the child
If there was a test
The father passed,
Though there wasn’t
And he didn’t
Was Jesus surprised?
Was the father?
What is authentic was not
Surprised
Faith will out
And doubt
They both had their turns
And they
And theys did well
They made healing
They made good
C L Couch
Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash
clcouch123 
July 7, 2020 at 11:45 am
A truly thought-provoking piece. I love this especially: “Faith will out / And doubt / They both had their turns.” Sometimes we can’t help but wonder if we are suffering because we are failing in our faith. But this passage shows that doubt is there too, and healing will still occur with both faith and doubt in play. Maybe it won’t occur in the way we want, or the way we think it will, but it will.
July 9, 2020 at 3:01 am
I must admit, I find comfort in this passage from Scripture. I think it’s a surer thing that we might suffer for rejection of faith rather than failure. We’re going to fail from time to time, after all. But that shouldn’t be a reasonable reason for punishment. I think it goes this way faithfully and spiritually as well. There might be negative consequences from failing that I think might be practical. There might be healing, too. You’re right, we don’t know exactly. But honest doubt I believe is okay.