How Jesus Meets Doubt
Cross-Cultural Voices January 6, 2026
Maisee Vang: Because I'm chosen, I am a child of God. And as God's child, he sees me so special. He created me in his image because Jesus came down to die on the cross for us. And through that, we've received the fullness of Christ and His mercy through his blood that He shed.
John Yoder: Welcome everybody to Cross-Cultural Voices. I'm John.
Robin Karkafi: I am Robin.
Maisee Vang: I’m Maisee.
John Yoder: It's good to be together again. And we're also glad to have with us Maisee's husband Teu for part three of three of our interview with him. In the past we've talked about shame and we've talked about rejection. And today we wanna talk about the subject of how God handles doubt and difficult questions in the lives of his people.
One area of disconnect for young people is asking hard questions. So for any young person that goes to middle school or high school in the US, they learn a lot of vocabulary to talk about emotions, and they know all about depression and anxiety, ADHD, and more. They also learn a lot of vocabulary to talk about sexuality. They all have LGBTQ friends. Some of them have gender confusion. They all know about George Floyd.
These are things that are constantly talked about in schools. Some for the good, some less good. But in many churches, these issues are off limits. That is, pastoral leadership and parents do not want to talk about mental health or sexuality issues.
And it creates a tension that the people who are speaking for God will not address these issues, whereas those who are outside the church will. So any of you just share with us, how does that tension play out, and how can young people find authentic and caring Christian voices speaking into these issues?
Robin Karkafi: I think not many do find honest and open. And actually this goes back to the question of what are some things that you could speak into someone's life as far as connecting shame and rejection. Why do people leave the church or church hop?
I feel like I've seen people leave the church because of lack of authenticity. They see a leader or a preacher who's full of themselves, right? They don't really wanna listen to that person if they were. If they felt like whoever's in front of them speaking is fake, there's no honesty or authenticity.
The sad truth is you can't find 'em. You can't find authentic people in every church. But I believe from my personal experience, you can in most. And so if you find even a couple or an individual, a wise counsel, someone who's willing to mentor you and walk with you through these, I'd encourage you to maybe reach out to one. An elder or a pastor and ask and seek if there's someone you can find, because not everybody's comfortable with talking about these things.
But I do feel like the church has a responsibility to talk about these subjects. And you might have to be the initiative that pushes, an openness and ask the leaders, Hey, why aren't we talking about this? I think there must be a dozen kids in our congregation who are dealing with anxiety or depression right now. And I think we really do need to hear from you and from God's wisdom in that regard.
Teu Hawj: And then it goes back to the question of how far you want to go. In terms of your relationship, it's as deep as you want to take it, right? When it deals with hard questions such as mental health and getting deeper than the cliche of, hey, how you're doing, it just goes back to relationships.
We're all looking for that. We're all looking for just people who are authentic and people who are transparent. As the relationship grows you can then tackle the hard questions.
Like for example, when I went through the church division, it took me about several years to actually process what happened. And no one asked me how I was doing, when the division happened.
I just took up leadership and ran with it, and it just kept on going and going, and, several years later, finally someone asked me how I was doing. I was able to just stop and take a breath and just to release everything that was in my head, which kind of took a toll on me. And I was just able to talk about it, and that helped me a lot in, in, in my mental state.
John Yoder: Thanks everybody, for sharing your ideas about how God deals with doubt and questions in the lives of his people. And right now we wanna look to the word of God and see how Jesus dealt with doubt.
This is from Matthew chapter 11. This is a story about John the Baptist. If there was anybody that should have had it all figured out, it was John. This was the guy who lived out in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey. This is the guy that preached with such fire that crowds poured out to hear him. This is the guy that baptized Jesus, the one who saw heaven open and heard God say, “This is my beloved son.” This is the one who proclaimed to huge crowds, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
John knew who Jesus was, but then he wound up in prison. King Herod arrested John for calling out his immoral marriage, and now John was sitting in a musty cell hearing secondhand reports from his disciples about Jesus healing people and teaching all over the place.
But he wondered, where was Jesus in his darkest hour, in his confinement? Certainly Jesus had to deliver the servant that was so faithful to him. So John sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus a very direct question. Matthew 11:3: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for someone else?”
Wow. This is the prophet that announced Jesus to the world, and now he's wondering if he got it all wrong. Here's something remarkable. Jesus doesn't get mad. He doesn't say, “Really, after all you've seen, you're questioning me?” He doesn't give him a lecture about needing stronger faith.
Jesus says this to John's disciples: “Go tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk. Lepers are cleansed in the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Jesus points to his evidence, his miracles. Not to rebuke John, but to reassure him. He's saying, “I'm doing what the Messiah's supposed to do.”
After that, Jesus turns to the crowd and shares his perspective on John. He does not rebuke his lack of faith. Instead he says, “Among those born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” Even in his doubt, even in his darkest moment, Jesus calls him great.
If you are struggling with doubt right now--doubts about whether God exists, whether he is good, whether he cares about you personally, you need to hear this. Your doubts do not make you a bad person or a bad Christian. They do not disqualify you from God's love.
John was doubting from a prison cell. Maybe you're doubting from another kind of prison: a relationship that's falling apart, a career path with no future, depression. When life doesn't match up to what you expected, doubt comes in.
But here's the deal. God can handle your honesty. He would rather have you bring him real doubts than fake faith. He wants you to bring to him your anger, your confusion, the moments when you're like, I wanna believe, but I just don't see how. Faith doesn't mean you have no doubts. It's bringing whatever small, flickering faith you have into the presence of God, and asking him to fan it into flame.
That doesn't mean that Jesus guarantees you an easy path. Very soon after this story, John would be executed for his faith. If your faith is an expectation that God will always make things go the way you want them to, before long you're going to be very disappointed.
Faith does not exempt us from deep suffering. Faith means that God will be there to walk alongside us in that suffering. If you have doubt, do what John did. Bring it to Jesus. Ask him the hard questions. He won't turn you away. Whether or not he gives you the answer that you want, he promises to walk with you through it all. Faith isn't having all the answers. It's the courage to come into the presence of God with your hard questions.
Another area where young people often feel shame and rejection is in the area of standards, and very specifically in churches, standards of clothing, dress, makeup, jewelry music, entertainment, more. Standards that do not clearly come from the word of God, and standards that are certainly not reflected in the school where the students attend where they want to fit in.
And many young people are very turned off from church because of these standards, these codes. What do you say to young people who have really been turned off from church because of all the rules?
Maisee Vang: Yeah. So I think for this question, like I can give a few examples of what I've seen, right? I've heard of things such as no tattoos, no piercings for men, no hats. And, the standard is that men, you're supposed to have collared shirts. Women, you're supposed to only wear neutral colors that are modest. Women can't wear bright colors, such as like pink, red, orange. Some women are even discouraged from wearing any lipstick or earrings at all, because it might be too catchy.
The Bible doesn't say you can't wear lipstick, you can't wear hats, you have to dress up. You shouldn't dress up, not any of that.
But rather, the key theme that we see in the Bible over and over again is it all leads back to your heart. And so I think that, to the young person who's struggling with people saying I shouldn't dress this way, I can't have tattoos or things, I would say to them, it's hard. It's unclear what is considered right or wrong. It's hard to say what's considered modest for a woman.
So I would go back to the question of asking yourself, go back to your heart and pray and say, ask God. Like why are you wearing the things you are wearing? Is it because I like fashion? So because of these things I dress the way I do, I don't believe that the word of God says we can't be in fashion. I believe that if it's like a hobby, like we can be in fashion as long as it's not something that I'm idolizing over, that I'm putting how I look and I'm putting the fashion before God, right?
But if I am wearing a certain piece of clothing or makeup, and deep down it's because I feel this void and I am trying to receive attention, then that's when I will say, okay, we need to do a heart check, because that is going in with wrong intentions of what I am putting on my body, right?
Because the word of God says that my body is to be a living sacrifice to God. So whether whatever I wear should glorify God, I should be presenting myself as a living sacrifice to God. And I think that's what I would say to someone who's struggling in this and it, it's hard to say what's considered right or wrong.
But I'm always led back to the s Bible verse in Romans 14 where it's and it's actually talking about food here, but I think that it could also relate to clothing. And it's the Bible verse that says, whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. And blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith. And everything that does not come from faith is sin.
So whatever you are to put on your body, whatever you're to wear, I think the goal is if you are doubting, whether or not the piece of clothing or what you're wearing is right, then I believe that you shouldn’t put it on. If you're doubting, if you believe that maybe it will cause some issues and you're not doing in full faith that it's not wrong, then I believe that it is better not to put it on because again, it all goes back to your heart.
John Yoder: Let me share with you first Peter 2:9-10: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
As I read these verses, I see four adjectives that God uses to describe his people. He says you are chosen, you are royal. You are holy, and you are special. And I asked myself the question, “What is the opposite of those four words?” The opposite of chosen is unwanted. The opposite of royal is powerless. The opposite of holy is unworthy. The opposite of special is unremarkable.
So there are lies that are telling you that you are rejected, that you are powerless, that you are unworthy, and that you're unremarkable and ordinary. But God says if you are one of his children, you are chosen, you are royal, you are holy, you are special. That is his call to all of us, to everyone who is part of his kingdom. And no matter who has rejected you, God has accepted you. And if he embraces you, then it is our duty as brothers and sisters in Christ to embrace one another as well.
Maisee Vang: I agree with you too. The one thing, the three words that I saw in my head or heard when this Bible verse was read is, you are a child of God. It goes to show because I'm chosen, I am a child of God. And as God's child, he sees me so special. He created me in his image.
And another thing that I'd like to add is that in verse 10, when he says, “Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Grace is receiving the blessings that we don't deserve. And mercy is receiving the forgiveness that we don't deserve. And through our sins, we deserve death. We deserve death. So before Christ died, we deserved death for our sins. But so that was why in verse ten, once you have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy, because Jesus came down to die on the cross for us. And through that we've received the fullness of Christ and his mercy through his blood that his he shed.
John Yoder: We hope that these things have been a very strong encouragement to you, and that you are able to see yourself as beloved wanted, the people of God, and those who have received mercy. We'll see you again next time.
