I think the key to “getting through a faith crisis” is to surrender yourself to it. What I mean by that is to not resist the doubts and questions that tell you to engage in honest inquiry and self-reflection because you are afraid of where that might lead. This seems to be the most commonly expressed concern among those in the midst of a faith crisis—a fear of what wrestling with their doubts/questions will lead them to conclude. If you can let go of that fear and trust that seeking the truth—whatever it may be—is ultimately better than forever having doubts, then you will find it much easier to manage. That includes trusting that wherever you land through your process of truth-seeking will ultimately be the best place for you.

Ironically, it takes a sort of faith to healthily navigate a faith crisis. Part of the problem I tend to see expressed when people speak of being in faith crisis is that they are holding onto to particular endpoint that they have predetermined is the proper place where they must end up. When their questions and research appear to be leading them down a different path, they get anxious and fearful. What if the path you are being led down takes you somewhere better than you could have ever imagined? The key to navigating faith crisis, I believe, is to trust that honestly pursuing the truth will ultimately lead you to a better place, even if it’s not the place you initially imagined.

The other piece to healthily navigating a faith crisis, in my opinion, is to recognize and be comfortable with the fact that someone going through the same experience as you may end up concluding something very different. There’s nothing that says that two people seeking truth, and wrestling with their respective faith, absolutely must reach the same destination. Everyone is ultimately in charge of their own spiritual journey, and no one’s interpretation of your journey matters but your own.

The challenge is that both of those things are easier said than done. It can be hard to have faith that going through the process of honest seeking will ultimately lead to a better destination when you can’t see around the twists and turns in that path. Even more so when you’ve been taught that certain endpoints on that path are to be avoided at all costs. It is difficult to let go of our preconceived ideas and social conditioning. Furthermore, it is hard to see others go through a similar process and end up somewhere that you do not. It’s hard not to compare ourselves to others. But if you can do those two things, I think you are ultimately rewarded for it—not just by the knowledge you gain through the act of truth-seeking, but also in the skills and growth you develop along the way.

You can become a better, healthier, more spiritually mature person through this process, and that is worth the journey in and of itself.