Jack Reese has been a Christian for a long time. Most of that time has been spent as a professional Christian—senior pastor, university professor, seminary dean, campus minister, community activist, and inspirational author. And yet (or, as Reese will teach you, because of), he still has some doubt. Still moments of unsureness. Still times when he can’t see God’s next step. Grace Sideways: Field Notes of a Doubting Believer is a reflection on his lifelong journey toward embracing doubt and using it to strengthen his faith.
We tend to view doubt as the opposite of faith. Doubting Thomas is the apostle who lacked the faith to believe in the Resurrection until he had tested out the corporeality of the risen Christ himself. If faith is being sure of what we cannot see, doubt is demanding proof. Reese challenges that assumption. In his view, doubt and faith go together: “To says doubts are mixed with faith is like saying wet is mixed with rain.” Doubt is what helps us build a robust, well-founded, tested faith. This view of doubt might be shocking to those who have been taught that doubt is bad, but over the course of Grace Sideways Reese meanders through Scripture and his personal life to show how doubt works in conjunction with faith to draw us closer to God.
Reese divides the book into three parts: if, while, and for. If reflects the unknowns of faith. While is about living in the present and listening for God. For is about using faith in other to serve others. Throughout it all, Reese takes a conversational, pastoral tone. He draws on his own lived experiences in a poetic and sometimes meandering way—grounding himself when necessary. It’s a wonderful blend of one person’s story and how that story is emblematic of a larger story of faith. It’s not a story of someone who always got everything right, but one of faith and doubt and struggle and trusting God through it all.
For those that are going through times of difficulty, Grace Sideways is an encouraging word. For those experiencing the dark night of the soul, when God feels absent, it is a reminder that faith can still be made stronger through those times. And for those that feel like they’ve got it all put together and that doubt is weakness, it’s a gentle redirect to a less-sure-but-more-firm type of faith.