I am not sure how I react to skeptics. Actually I know how I react; I am just not sure how I should react. Skeptics are infuriating! Skeptics raise all the questions, doubts, and fears and yet rarely offer a suggestion on how to seize the opportunity and make it work. Skeptics often, especially in the corporate world, sit smug in their corner after throwing the mud and dirt on the table thinking their job is done. Even if one addresses the uncertainties in round one there is always a round two, three, and four. Even if one is successful the skeptic raises the questions left unanswered, unaddressed, or shifts gears into raising the concerns on how the new opportunity will never sustain itself.
Yet skeptics are people who have real fears, often believe they are doing the right thing, and can, on occasion, be turned into true believers. I don’t believe the right answer is dismissing and getting rid of skeptics. The answer always circles back into how one relates with them and uses what they have brought to the table. Is there anything in the questions, doubts, and fears that can form part of the solution? Have they touched on something that provides a key to the opportunity? Can one leverage their insights?
In the story of old there were a lot of hungry people and no obvious source of food to feed them. Andrew appears to have searched for an answer but in the end could not offer anything that he thought might work. I sense he was a reluctant skeptic. His response was direct yet full of doubt.
“There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this.” (John 6.9)
In Jesus’ response I see a model for anyone’s relationships with skeptics. Acknowledge and respect the fact that some thought has gone into the problem. Listen to what they have to say. Use what works and get on with life. A simple roadmap I can follow today.
