Questions That Need To Be Asked

Ah . . . questions . . .

Questions fill our days, fill our minds.  Questions can either drive us crazy when they seem unanswerable or they can stretch our reality when the answer challenges our norms. 

I love questions.  I love discussion.  I even love questions that can't be answered - because I love the gift that comes with it.

It's the gift of wonderment.  You know wonderment - that strange emotion that combines puzzling, dizzying, surprising thoughts, swirling and spiraling, pushing boundaries, lifting limits.  The gift of wonderment is the gift of "what if?"  What if . . .

What if I'm wrong and he's right?  What if there are aliens?  What if something bad happens?  What if . . . ?

Questions are both fulfilling and draining.  Questions are about lifting up and breaking down.  Questions create calm and wreak havoc.

Questions are around us everyday, but because they have the potential to disturb our carefully crafted and cautiously guarded peace, we often stuff them down, as if not addressing the questions will kill the questions themselves.

I have found that questions never really go away.  In a moment of quiet, in a moment when our defenses are down, the questions rise up.  As Christians, we will sometimes give Satan completely undue credit - as if questions are a trick of the enemy.  Can they be used against us?  Of course.  Satan will try to use every good thing against us!

But what if we embraced our questions, head on, as a gift from God instead of a scheme of Satan?  What if God wants us to ask questions?  What if He is inviting the questions?

What if we really explored the question - what it means, why we are asking - to get to the bottom of our need?

God - listen to me now - God has REALLY BIG SHOULDERS.  Your questions don't hurt his feelings or ruffle his feathers.  The God who can hold all the waters of the earth in the palm of his hand, who can measure all the galaxies of space with his fingers - this God is not offended by your questions.

So ask them.  Ask him, the Author of Truth, the one whose name is Faithful and True - ask him your questions.  And then look - look for the answers.

Ask why - why did he leave?  Why did she die?  Why am I lonely?
Ask who - who are you God?  Who are you really?  For heaven's sake - who am I?
Ask what - what is the meaning of all this?  What were you thinking?
Ask when - when will I get what I'm asking for?  When will I find what I need?  When will I have peace?
Ask where - where are you?  Where were you when I was hurting?

Ask all the questions.  Wrestle with them.  Be prepared to not like the answers.  Be prepared to know God in a whole new way.

Be prepared to love God in a whole new way.

God is not afraid of your questions.  He's not afraid of you at all!  The truth is, you are the one who is afraid.  You are afraid you'll make God mad.  That you are risking eternity.  That you are risking everything.  You are afraid that you won't like the answer.  You are afraid that there won't be an answer.

And that, my friends, is the scheme of Satan.  Convincing you to hide your true self from the one who made you.  Convincing you to build a wall between you and God.  Convincing you to settle for less than true, intimate fellowship with our one true love.

You may not have questions.  Great!  You may not know what your questions are, because you have stiffled them for so long.  That's ok.  Go somewhere quiet, be alone, and just let your thoughts flow.

The questions will come.
And that's ok.