All the Questions
““I have a question. No. Wait. I have all the questions.””
I have never identified with a toy dinosaur on such a deep level as when I heard Trixie say those words. I often feel the exact same way. I start with one question, and before I know it that single question has snowballed into a huge ball of questions.
I’m not the only one like this, have you ever noticed how many questions children ask? My wife likes to joke that my nephew needs to be an interrogator when he grows up because he can muster up a never-ending barrage of “why’s” that would seemingly make even the most tight-lipped criminal squeal like a pig. Kids are inquisitive, because we, as a species, are inquisitive beings. Why is that?
Glad you asked (see, I knew you were inquisitive).
I think it’s because God created us with the mental capacity for things like learning, logic, and problem-solving. We make use of these capabilities, in large part, by asking questions (whether audibly or internally). Asking questions is how our brain naturally goes about collecting the additional information needed to make decisions. Now if those last few sentences seem extremely mundane and obvious, it’s because they are, and that’s the point. Questions are normal.
Now let’s move this conversation to the Bible. There is an entire website dedicated to questions surrounding the Bible (www.gotquestions.org), and at the time of this writing, they claim to have answered exactly 699,381 Bible questions. To put that into context, there are only 783,137 words in the KJV Bible. Suffice it to say, people have a lot of questions about the Bible, but to be exact, that’s about 0.89 questions per word.
What’s problematic is that questions, especially some of them, are not welcome in many faith communities. Questions about God or the correct interpretation of scripture can often cause people to get very defensive, usually, because they misunderstand these questions to be an attack on God, the Bible, tradition, and/or their own personal position or character, when in actuality this is not the case at all.
This mindset where people with sincere and legitimate questions are labeled as trouble-makers and warned to “leave well enough alone” is troubling, to say the least. If a person cannot be open and honest with those in their fellowship about the things that are troubling them, they will find a community where they feel safe raising these concerns. Sometimes that community may be another church or a place like gotquestions.org, but other times it can be a place that leads them away from God. Believe me, there are some internet communities that can lead you down some deep and dark rabbit holes, but people end up there because they can be open; they feel heard and understood. There are countless stories of those who totally deconstruct their faith because of questions they have; some rebuild, while others never do. I have read and listened to the accounts of some of these, and it seems that what drove them away was not necessarily the questions themselves, but rather the feeling that they couldn’t, or shouldn’t, be asking them to start with, and the ridicule they received because they did.
There is great power in honesty. Some of the most powerful answers that I have ever received to questions of my own are things like “I don’t know”, or “yeah, that bothers me, too”. It was reassuring to know I wasn’t the only one, and answering others like this sets you free from the bondage of pretending you have things all figured out. As a matter of fact, I feel like this little bit of honesty is a lot more helpful than the generic, cookie-cutter answers that are often given. When we are open about our own questions and uncertainties, but still show faith in God, that can be a testimony in and of itself.
Remember, the Bible is a very old collection of books, poems, prophecies, and letters, written in foreign languages and by a wide range of authors from cultures far, far removed from our own. It’s hard to make sense of it sometimes. Questions tend to come up. That’s normal. Ask them.
God bless!
On the same day I finished the rough draft for this blog I came across a blog written by Daniel Rogers the day before. Daniel is one of my favorite bloggers, and our articles are eerily similar (especially considering we wrote them almost simultaneously and without knowledge of the other). Daniel does a much better job than myself on this topic. Please take the time to read it by clicking here.
