“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” James Thurber

“Hey dad, can I ask you a question?” I hear this statement quite frequently, and sometimes am bothered by it. I am frustrated when a question is asked and I can tell that there was no thinking prior to the asking. Do you know what I am talking about? I like questions, but my hope and desire is to stimulate thinking both before and after a question is asked. I have this belief that the sooner I can get someone to not only ask questions, but think about them, the sooner they will be able to live in a real world. The road to wisdom is paved with lots and lots of choices, and the act of making a choice requires thinking. It is all part of my selfish desire to help kids grow to be responsible, respectful, and fun to be around most of the time. I say most of the time because I know that I am not always fun to be around, and how can I have an expectation of someone else that I do not have of myself?

So what do you think about questions? What is your viewpoint? This may seem an unusual question, but is there really anyone out there who does not have a question from time to time? Even the brightest person has questions. In fact, I think the more a person reads, the more a person learns, the more questions a person may have. Sometimes questions are simple and straightforward, other times they seem surprising and perhaps even frightening, and they may push us to avoidance rather than discovery. Once in a while I run across a person with no questions. This seems sad. Why don’t they have questions? What has caused them to choose to live without wonder? Someone not having questions makes me have even more questions.

If we want to know the truth we have to ask questions. In fact, to truly pursue the living God, we have to see the need for questions. So, how does your faith do with questions? Do you have room in your faith for questions? Why is this person sick? What is going on? Why did this happen? When will this change? When a person asks questions they are admitting that they do not have all of the answers, which then pushes a person to look outside of themselves for guidance. Rob Bell in his book “Velvet Elvis” states that “Questions, no matter how shocking or blasphemous or arrogant or ignorant or raw, are rooted in humility. A humility that understands that I am not God. And there is more to know.”

The Bible is filled with stories of real people who asked questions. Moses spends an inordinate amount of time (2 chapters) trying to convince God that He has picked the wrong guy, and with each question it appears that God reveals how convinced He is that He picked the right one. Job certainly asked a lot of questions. Nicodemus couldn’t sleep because of questions (see John 3). And what about Jesus on the cross asking, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Maybe God is looking for people who don’t just sit there and mindlessly accept whatever comes their way. Asking questions is a way of engaging the living God. It is a way of thinking and searching for answers. Asking questions is a way to freedom. Freedom from having to have it all figured out. If we do our job well, your children will have a mind full of questions.

Thanks for reading.