Recently, I had a joyful meander around the sculpture trail at the Brick Bay Winery at Snells Beach. We were there to celebrate with family, and eased a lovely long lunch with a walk in the forest attached to the winery, which is famous for its sculpture trail.
It’s about an hour and a half for the full circuit, and every few minutes we’d come across a pile of stones, or owl-like form, or something to look at, talk about then move on.
One particular sculptural form has been re-playing in my brain this week. It’s called “seeing is believing” – which, as you’ll see from the picture, is exactly that. It’s a neon sign, with a written phrase, in the middle of the woods.
Only the words are backwards – a fact that I didn’t pick up straight away. My brain plays tricks.
It’s simple, it’s fun. It's a complete juxtaposition of calm, organic forest and jarring neon usually associated with the most dense of urban settings. I love its simplicity, whimsy and boldness.
But then I ask myself, is it really that simple? It’s back-to-front, and it told me one thing and then I saw the reality – I was simply deceived.
That’s true of lots of things in our culture: seeing is believing. We watch things on our phones, in the news, memes and short videos – seeing is believing. We accept without too much digestion and swallow it whole.
Images are powerful things, in truth. We don't question, we don't doubt. We see and move on. Yet these things shape us. Formation happens.
We are spiritually formed by what we glide on through.
But formation can also be done intentionally, through practices we pause over in a God-focused way. It's good to re-check, to reflect and to doubt.
As “believers” we don’t go far down this theological chat without mentioning good ol’ Thomas – the Thomas with the bad rap. “Doubting Thomas”, said like it’s the biggest sin to doubt. Not Stealing Thomas, or Lying Thomas.
His big mistake? To question his reality. “You guys, you’ve all seen him! I’m not going to take it from you, I need to get this truth for myself.”
Doubting is a well-known stage of spiritual development.
Christian sociologist, a chap called James Fowler, identified and captured this stage in the 1980s and the theory has proliferated lately with others like Alan Jamieson, John Mark Comer and Brian McLaren, all who have great books that do a deeper dive.
Doubt is a normal stage to move through – to question things we once held as tablet-of-stone truths, to stumble across words in the woods and see them in a new light.
I love a quote McLaren uses in his book:
One thing they all note about this faith stage is that it's not good to do alone.
We need our community. That's something that I've grown to see about Thomas – he was blunt with the others about how he felt. Not afraid to say, “I don't believe you”. Unfortunately, that's what got him the bad rap.
That's the real mistake: the judgement the rest of us have bestowed upon him without questioning it.
Do we think we’re better than him because we believe without poking the wounds? How judgemental, how back-to-front! He actually owned his faith.
I learned something recently about our friend Thomas recently (albeit apocryphal). After he saw Jesus, who graciously let him touch his wounds in real time, Thomas picked up a cross and walked to India – where he is credited with igniting faith on that continent. He travelled further with the gospel than Paul or any of our New Testament heroes of faith.
Is this truth? Well, seeing is believing... maybe. You may even change your mind about Thomas. Google it, and think about it for yourself!
1Brian McLaren, Faith After Doubt, 2021.
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We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
Recently, I had a joyful meander around the sculpture trail at the Brick Bay Winery at Snells Beach. We were there to celebrate with family, and eased a lovely long lunch with a walk in the forest attached to the winery, which is famous for its sculpture trail.
It’s about an hour and a half for the full circuit, and every few minutes we’d come across a pile of stones, or owl-like form, or something to look at, talk about then move on.
One particular sculptural form has been re-playing in my brain this week. It’s called “seeing is believing” – which, as you’ll see from the picture, is exactly that. It’s a neon sign, with a written phrase, in the middle of the woods.
Only the words are backwards – a fact that I didn’t pick up straight away. My brain plays tricks.
It’s simple, it’s fun. It's a complete juxtaposition of calm, organic forest and jarring neon usually associated with the most dense of urban settings. I love its simplicity, whimsy and boldness.
But then I ask myself, is it really that simple? It’s back-to-front, and it told me one thing and then I saw the reality – I was simply deceived.
That’s true of lots of things in our culture: seeing is believing. We watch things on our phones, in the news, memes and short videos – seeing is believing. We accept without too much digestion and swallow it whole.
Images are powerful things, in truth. We don't question, we don't doubt. We see and move on. Yet these things shape us. Formation happens.
We are spiritually formed by what we glide on through.
But formation can also be done intentionally, through practices we pause over in a God-focused way. It's good to re-check, to reflect and to doubt.
As “believers” we don’t go far down this theological chat without mentioning good ol’ Thomas – the Thomas with the bad rap. “Doubting Thomas”, said like it’s the biggest sin to doubt. Not Stealing Thomas, or Lying Thomas.
His big mistake? To question his reality. “You guys, you’ve all seen him! I’m not going to take it from you, I need to get this truth for myself.”
Doubting is a well-known stage of spiritual development.
Christian sociologist, a chap called James Fowler, identified and captured this stage in the 1980s and the theory has proliferated lately with others like Alan Jamieson, John Mark Comer and Brian McLaren, all who have great books that do a deeper dive.
Doubt is a normal stage to move through – to question things we once held as tablet-of-stone truths, to stumble across words in the woods and see them in a new light.
I love a quote McLaren uses in his book:
One thing they all note about this faith stage is that it's not good to do alone.
We need our community. That's something that I've grown to see about Thomas – he was blunt with the others about how he felt. Not afraid to say, “I don't believe you”. Unfortunately, that's what got him the bad rap.
That's the real mistake: the judgement the rest of us have bestowed upon him without questioning it.
Do we think we’re better than him because we believe without poking the wounds? How judgemental, how back-to-front! He actually owned his faith.
I learned something recently about our friend Thomas recently (albeit apocryphal). After he saw Jesus, who graciously let him touch his wounds in real time, Thomas picked up a cross and walked to India – where he is credited with igniting faith on that continent. He travelled further with the gospel than Paul or any of our New Testament heroes of faith.
Is this truth? Well, seeing is believing... maybe. You may even change your mind about Thomas. Google it, and think about it for yourself!
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
