Imagine for a moment that you’re taking a peaceful walk down the street. The sun is shining, the city around you is buzzing, maybe a cool breeze is going by, and you’re feeling good. You’re on your way to work or to an appointment and you’re intending to have a productive, joyful day— when all of a sudden, someone steps in front of you and threatens to punch you.
What would you do? You might duck, put your hands up in defense, call for help, or even just remove yourself by running away.
What if instead of those things, you took that person by the hand and you kept them around all day. You took them everywhere you went. They continued to threaten you and even tried to punch you a few times. You might have sat down and tried to reason with them, to talk them out of it, or make yourself different in hopes that they would stop wanting to punch you. But still, you kept them right by your side.
This of course sounds ridiculous, right? In the context of a violent person, yes it is. However this is how we behave toward our doubtful thoughts every day. What would it take for us to fear doubt in the same way we’d fear this person?
By remembering that doubt is a signal to reach for the Creator. Next week, we welcome Pesach, and this time of abundant Light is an opportunity to strengthen our connection with the Creator—even, and especially, through times of challenge and doubt.
The Israelites are a perfect example of this. Pesach, also known as Passover, lasts for seven days, with the 7th day marking the moment that the Israelites first awakened a miracle with their own Light. When the Israelites came to the sea, the Egyptians relentlessly on their heels and ready to kill them all, they were trapped. Doubt flared, but it was here that they called out to the Creator for His assistance. The Creator assured them that they had the ability to create the miracle for themselves. This provided the necessary shift in their collective consciousness from doubt to connection to the Creator, and they miraculously made a path where once there was none.
Think about the most difficult times you’ve ever had in your life. Call to mind the three most challenging, and reflect on what was there to greet you in your consciousness. Was it fear, worry, and doubt? Or was it the Creator?
In those moments, the ones that brought you to our knees, the ones that forced you to seek answers or make big, defining choices, what were the thoughts that consumed you?
Is this the right doctor for my health crisis?
Is this the right business decision?
Is this the right time to start a family?
Is this the right relationship for me?
Is it doubt driving us in those moments? Or is it the certainty and strength we find in our connection to the Light of the Creator?
This is the shift that is needed: To develop a fear of doubt that is so distinct it immediately drives us back to our connection with the Creator.
When I think of what it feels like to be in my connection with the Creator, the image that comes to mind is a child. When I see children walking or playing, I can tell they’re walking with the Light because they are a full expression of it—simple, joyful, curious. They totally trust they’ll be taken care of, protected, and loved. They are with the Creator. But as we get older, we move farther and farther away from that level of certainty.
I still remember the connection I had with the Creator as a child. When I was young and growing up in New Orleans, I felt the Creator all the time. I had tea parties with God, we watched TV together, I played alone a lot, but I was never alone. He was always with me. But as I grew older and moved to LA, I started Beverly Hills High School, and I began to move further away from that connection and further away from myself. By the time I was a young adult, I was in a very dark place. I went through a very challenging period and, while I don’t regret anything, I made a lot of choices that I wouldn’t make again today. I became very unhealthy, but then I found the Creator again.
What I learned from that, and every challenging time since, is what the voice of doubt sounded like:
Who will love and support me?
Will I survive this?
Will I ever be happy?
Will I be okay?
That voice became a signal. When thoughts like these appear for you, they’re really only telling you one thing: It’s time to reach for the Creator. It’s a spotlight showing you where it’s time to grow and change. It doesn’t mean making a snap decision or moving to resolve the problem without thinking it through. It means becoming aware of your doubt and seeing what and where you need to strengthen.
Over the years I have seen so many people go through hardship. They lose a relationship, a business venture falls through, a healthy person receives a difficult diagnosis. Instantly I hear them say, what was all that work for? It all feels like a joke, like a trap. Did any of it even mean anything?
And I ask back to them: Where was the Creator in all of it? Where is the Creator in it now?
You don’t have to wait for a crisis or challenge to ask these kinds of questions and do this kind of reflecting. Where is your lifeline today? Where is your connection to the Creator, and where is your connection to yourself?
Doubt is like a leaky faucet. One drop here, another drop there—those little drops don’t seem like a big deal, but eventually they become a puddle, and then a pond, and then a lake, and eventually an entire ocean. This is why doubt is dangerous. Anytime you notice a drop of doubt in your mind, strengthen your desire to connect with the Creator.
When we do this, we create endless openings and opportunities for the miraculous.
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