Questions are good.
I’ve wrestled with this thought probably the whole Race. Are questions good, and if so, why are they?
Asking questions means you recognize you don’t know everything, but you have the desire to mature past where you stand currently.
If you ask anybody who knows me, they’ll probably say I’m known for asking a lot of questions.
Over my life I’ve been accused of
1. asking good questions,
- asking too many questions, and
- asking questions that don’t matter/no one else cares to know
But to all my other question askers out there. Keep doing it. Don’t be afraid of asking. BECAUSE maturity is on the other side and we don’t live in fear of man.
Too many times in University, in Seminary, in Sunday School, in personal conversation with people I’ve heard others say they had a question but didn’t ask it because of
- Being afraid they would look stupid for not knowing the answer
- Looking aggressive/disrespectful because they were asking questions to a leader
- Thinking they missed the answer earlier and didn’t want to inconvenience anyone by asking a second time
Now sure, motivation is important.
Some can ask questions out of fear, hoping to gain security in whatever the answer to that question is, rather than placing security in God. For part of my life I did this. Especially when it came down to the area of planning. The true motivator here was control out of fear of Man/world/Satan, verses trust out of love from God. I would ask a ridiculous amount of questions regarding time, order of events, what’s next, etc etc. To all my planners out there, I’m not coming at you. I also used to be more on the planning side rather than going with the flow. But my question for everyone is, what is your motivation? What moves you and your emotions?
There’s probably other bad motivators for asking questions. But I can only speak from my experience.
Also, find someone who will entertain questions with you.
Sometimes I like asking questions to ponder, ruminate, and study it inside out, and not to just have a quick simple answer. For example, “Is it okay if I don’t address the sin issue I see, but rather console someone through the consequences of their sin?” The answers we are NOT looking for here are,
- It’s not our place to judge
- We just need to love people
- Sin needs to be addressed, because it’s ungodly and we want to be more like God
All of these things are true, and to all of these things, forgive my brashness, I would say “duh”. These questions, if I feel comfortable enough to ask them before you, I trust that you know where my foundation is, which is wrapped up in the 3 “duh” answers above. I’m asking things like this because I want you to dig with me. Like, Let’s understand why don’t we judge, or do we? What does it look like to love someone without condoning sin? Does this way or that accomplish that?
This is one of my top reasons I love community. Because if they know you, they know your foundation, and you can ask the hard questions together. My friend and squadmate Jenny Feicht and I have talked about why we love the Hebrew culture so much. Her Dad has been influenced by it a lot, and why it’s so amazing is because their bible studies are centered around asking a questions/questions. Deep ones and they dig, ruminate, and study it inside out together.
So… since we’re here, ASK QUESTIONS!?! I know you have them.
These are the ones I’ve been pondering and want to continue researching in scriptures and via revelation from Holy Spirit.
- If Jesus has always been from the beginning, does that mean that he wasn’t human until He came to earth birthed from Mary?
- If God has no gender or race, then should we be just as frustrated when He is depicted as a male in movies/stories just as much as a female?
- If a brother or sister in Christ thrive and grab for attention, how do you address them in their sin without encouraging their drive to seek attention?
- Scripture talks about how we can’t say we don’t have need for a brother or sister, but can we say that we don’t want them?
- If Jesus’s ministry on earth had perimeters to Israel (with the exceptions of people of notable faith), do we have perimeters to our ministry too? Or is to the ends of the earth a command to everyone without limitation ever?
