I heard a pastor tell a story about a miracle that happen in the life of a 15-year-old girl during a weekend retreat. Quiet, reserved, shy, brilliant and troubled: that's how he described her. All weekend her hollow, lifeless eyes searched for answers to gnawing questions that had eroded her life and spirit and made her appear dark and despondent. But something happened: Her eyes became more restless and alert. She was searching and she somehow knew she was close to something.

The group had spent the weekend on the theme "Discovery" and had talked about discovery of self, of others, and of God. And as another 15-year-old shared the pain of her older sister's recent suicide, the dam broke and water, like baptism, washed a face that hadn't cried in a very long time.

Later on that evening, the group did a Bible study around Luke 9 where Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do people say that I am?" And later in the chapter where Jesus lays out the conditions for discipleship: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it." When the pastor asked the group what that sounded like -- a commercial, a Sunday school lesson, a parent laying down another rule -- the young girl with the tear-stained face responded: "It sounds to me like something worth giving my life to."

The pastor said "I sat with Thomas that night in the form of a 15-year-old girl and we shared some bread and wine in the presence of our Lord, Jesus Christ."

Do you see? Out of the struggle with honest doubt, a faith can be reborn, and new life can begin.