I loved Jason’s honesty and humbleness. I found a Christian who questions the usefulness of prayer, who questions whether Christianity isn’t just manmade, and who gets somewhat cynical about the overly-spiritualized church. Yet, he doesn’t give up on his faith. He struggles with it, but still pushes on. He feels that faith is worth the effort. Why does he choose faith? He says:

Mainly, because I hope. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for,” the author of Hebrews wrote, “and certain of what we do not see” (11:1). I’m not exactly “certain” of anything, but I’m sure of what I hope for: I hope there’s something more than a dust-to-dust, grow-old-and-then-you-die material existence. I hope God exists.

Sure, this is a pathetically weak type of faith. Some may even call it wishful thinking. However, it might be the mustard seed size faith Jesus was talking about.

Doubt is an inherently depressing topic to write about, but Jason infuses his book with comic relief, which helped me to keep on reading. Many times, he had me laughing inside, and a few times, I actually laughed out loud. I also enjoyed that he voiced his skeptical internal voice, which sounded a lot like my internal dialogue.

The one “problem” with the book was that it jumped from topic to topic, however I think that style fit with the subject of the book. Doubters tend to jump from issue to issue because one question leads to another, which leads to another, which makes it hard to stay focus.

I would definitely recommend this book. It is not a big time commitment and it was a very enjoyable read. The book was even small enough to fit in my back pocket as I brought it to a couple of restaurants to read during my trip to New Orleans. (It was so nice to be able to eat at an outside café and enjoy good food and a good book!)

Jason describes a faith that I hope to have one day. It is a weak faith that continues to doubt, but a faith nonetheless. Jason is honest about his feelings but still seeks the Lord. Unfortunately, the skeptic in me still wonders if Jason is just being a hopeful believer.

Note: Jason Boyett also has a great blog.

Just kidding. Evolution doesn’t really work this way