6 posts tagged “questions”

Simply put, questions are good.

Socrates had a thing for using them for educational purposes.  He developed an entire basis of learning on questions.  Jesus had a thing for using questions to teach as well as to shut the mouths of the pharisees and the rabbis of His day.  My friend Adam can make you realize a thousand things wrong with everything you think by asking a few simple questions.  I have a thing for using them to approach conflict resolution in a generally peaceful way.  Replacing assumptions with questions that allow explanation is like giving a tense conversation a back rub.

But I'm a little worried about our generation.

I get the feeling that sometimes we equate actively questioning everything with open minded, cultured, sophisticated intelligence.  Specifically in the spiritual culture I spend a lot of time in, I think our love of questions is an overreaction to the preceding generation.  In response to the Enlightenment culture of reason, the church boiled God down to a thousand formulas that all made perfect sense.  Doubting God is heresy.  God is in the formulas.  Doubting the formulas is heresy!

The problems in that thinking are obvious:  God is not as small as our easy to diagram formulas.  Formulas are not God.  Doubting formulas is not heresy, or even a lack of faith.  It's smart.

At the same time, the overreaction to an unyielding, pre-packaged, formula-ruined view of God is to equate doubt with godliness.  If you're not asking questions about everything, then you don't have a brain; you're not authentic; you're afraid.  And of course, the only problem with that is the Bible (John 20:27; Heb. 3:12-13; James 1:5-8). 

Questions are good, but they're not the answer.

It's 2:30 a.m. and I'm in the living room of my mom's house in Pennsylvania discussing life with my mom and my brother-in-law.  You've gotta love holiday vacation.

My brother-in-law just told this story.  In the past few months the small group he was a part of has disintegrated.  As a result, he and my sister have been left without a consistent group of people who love Jesus pushing them towards Jesus; a group of people who want to know them deeply; a group of men willing to ask him the tough questions; a group of women willing to push her past everyday fears and worries and toward trusting God; a group of young couples discussing parenting, serving their community, loving each other and ultimately loving God.

It's taken a toll on my brother.  His comment is that he's angry that the group disintegrated.  More than that, one of the other couples in his group struggled to the point of the husband not living with his family for a while.  The small group falling apart certainly didn't cause this struggle, but the loss of a support group surely played a role.

He continued to discuss the way the group had fallen apart as they lost their baby-sitter and then one thing led to another and then they fell apart.

Wait stop.  Did you hear that?

They lost their babysitter.

No catastrophic fall out.  No bitter argument.  No blow up.  No major anything.  Nothing that "mattered" at all.  And yet here we are months later with a group of people missing out on something that was amazingly good in their life just because they didn't take care of the small things.

What are the "things that don't matter" in your life that you're not taking care of?

If you haven't gotten hooked on Manchester Orchestra, you should.  Right now.  Go listen to their entire album "Like a Virgin Losing a Child."  Then listen to it about a thousand times over because it's got enough unique melodies, pounding emotional rhythm, and lyrical content in there to chew on for a few years.

In one of their most powerful songs, "Where Have You Been?", lead singer, Andy Hull ends on a repetitive cry of "Oh God, where have you been? . . . God, my God, my God, where have you been?"  I totally connect with where he's coming from.  There are moments in life where God feels far away, and life feels like it's falling apart, and it feels like all I've got left is "WHERE ARE YOU GOD?!"

It's the wrong question.

The truth of the matter is that God isn't in the habit of bailing on His kids.  He's not prone to wander or get lost or show up late.  God never struggles with keeping His schedule straight or finding time to fit us in between other hobbies of His.  God isn't the problem.

We are.

It's amazing how quick we are to blame God for our own struggles.  We need to start asking the question regularly, "God, where have I been?" 

Heb. 2:2-3
"For if [...] every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,  how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"

Two quick HUGE thoughts:

1.) "EVERY transgression and disobedience received a just penalty"
   
Take a quick survey of your life.  Remember every disobedient moment.  Every single time you felt God urging your life a direction and you hesitated.  Every time you blew it.  Every failure.

ALL of them have already received a just penalty.  God literally unleashed the full force of His wrath on His Son Jesus Christ on the cross.  Every bit of shame you've ever felt, Jesus took on Himself.  Every bit of pain you've ever caused for yourself, Jesus took on Himself.    Why?  So that by putting your trust and faith in Him, He could save you from the punishment you deserve.

2.) "how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"

FOR REAL DID YOU HEAR WHAT YOU JUST READ?  Are these words penetrating your heart?  Does the thought of Jesus on the cross shake you to your core?  Do you stand in awe of so great a salvation?

Or are you neglecting it?

And if we are neglecting the salvation that we claim to be true, how guilty are we?

Simply put, the trip was amazing.  Really quickly I want you to imagine a trip of 200 college students that is being planned, organized and led solely by other college students. . .

Now erase all the mental images of drunken mellee and destroyed hotel rooms.  As much as anything else, I was blown away by some CRAZY high quality leadership throughout the entire trip.  I was well taken care of, the students were well taken care of, and ultimately everyone made it there, encountered God and made it back home safe.

For sure one of the more interesting parts of the trip for me was that we stayed in what would be considered a fairly traditional church.  Let me first off say this place was extremely gracious as they opened their facilities absolutely free of charge and even provided 2 meals for our entire group of 200.  I got no complaints.

The interesting part were old questions that sometimes I forget are even being asked anymore. 

Does God care about the clothing that I wear?  Is using the word "crap" sinful?

Maybe the questions aren't really even that interesting to me. . . I think the passion with which people hold opinions on questions like these are pretty interesting though.  Alright, we'll be back to more regular posts as of tomorrow.  I'm still catching up on sleep.

P.S. Columbia, I missed you.

I want to ask a question that I'm going to expand upon for the next week or so.  I think this question will radically change our lives and this is one of those questions I'll still be wrestling with when I'm 80.  I don't think this question is one that you just answer right now and forget about.  I think it's supposed to stay with us.  I think it's supposed to keep shaping us forever.  I think it's the reason why Jesus instituted communion.  I think it's the main question in the process of sanctification.

Here's the question:

If you really believed the truth of the gospel, what would it change about the way you live?

Here's why the question is so vital.  The world is tired of hypocrite Christians who claim that God is love but hate everyone around them.  God is tired of hypocrite Christians who sing loud praises on Sunday morning and then ignore Him for the rest of the week (He pretty much says so in Amos 5:21-24).  At the center of dead, burnt-out, religious Christianity that God despises and at the center of legalistic, rule-oriented, hypocrisy is the same problem: a general misunderstanding of the gospel.  So here are two more questions to get us started:

1.) What is the gospel of Jesus Christ?   and   2.) Right now, how much direct effect does the gospel have on your life?  (Another way to think about this one is: How often do you think to yourself "Because of the gospel: I will or will not be this kind of person, do that, act like this, have that attitude, etc."?)