The apostle Thomas, was dubbed “Doubting Thomas” for all time, when his words of doubt were immortalized in the gospel of John. There have always been skeptics to the Christian faith. Lee Strobel was a modern day skeptic. In his book, “God’s Outrageous Claims,” he shares  his pilgrimage to Christ. “I used to consider the Resurrection to be a laughable fairy tale. After all, Yale Law School had trained me to be coldly rational, and my years of sniffing for news at the Chicago Tribune had only toughened my naturally cynical personality.” Then the strangest thing happened in Lee Strobel’s life. His wife who had always shared his cynicism and disbelief embarked on a journey of faith. Lee began to notice that profound changes were happening in his wife, in her attitudes, her actions and in the way she was treating him. He writes,  *“Intrigued by changes in my wife . . . I spent nearly two years systematically using my journalistic and legal experience to study the evidence for the Resurrection and the credibility of Jesus’ claims. . . . I emerged totally convinced . . .”  And God became real for him.  God became real for me one night when I turned by life over to God.

We come to faith in a variety of ways. There are as many ways as there are people.  Through sick kids and bad marriages,  colossal failures, addictions, lost jobs  or in the ordinariness of our lives.   One day the scripture passage you’ve read many times before touches your heart. God speaks to you in and through it. In a moment of despair you give up on controlling the universe and you surrender your life into God’s hands.   You listen to the words of a hymn and a verse stands out . . . It is as if this is the first time you have heard those words, though you may have sung them since childhood. You look to the skies on a starlit night and you sense an awesomeness and mystery there. One day you reach out or up, and there is God, unexpectedly and surprisingly. You thought you were on a search for God, never realizing that all the while, God has been searching for a means to break through your skepticism, your doubt and your sophistication.   The amazing good news of God’s love for us, is that God never stops searching for a way into our hearts. May that be your joy.

*Lee Strobel God’s Outrageous Claims, p. 170