Questions?

I have spent this week asking questions...lots of questions:  What does the Lordship of Christ mean?  How is the Kingdom of God breaking into the world here and now?  What issues do you struggle with most in life?  How do you cast a vision?  Where is God in the midst of suffering?  Not to worry, I haven’t been asking random people such questions.  I am a member of the Board of Ordained Ministry and we have been interviewing candidates for clergy in the United Methodist Church.  I have asked a lot of questions!

Yet, these are not just questions that I am asking to others.  I wrestle with them, too?  I have come to see that the questions one asks in life are really important.  They will shape and develop you.  Which ones will not let go of you?  Which ones do you sit with because there are no clear answers?  Which ones do you avoid?  Which ones are easy?  Hard?  Which ones are you afraid to ask?  What are the deepest questions in your life right now?  What questions are you ignoring or running from?

I find God in the questions.  Some run from questions and some Christians will even say it is best not to have questions.  “Certainty is much better!”, they say...but maybe we need to look again.  In my questions God nudges me, challenges me, broadens me, comforts me, and teaches me.  Sometimes in the questions, God just invites me to simply live in the mystery.   If this is so, then our questions may very well be holy!

Spend some time thinking about the questions that you are living with right now; the obvious ones and the ones that it takes courage to even name. 

Brett