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The Right and Wrong Questions for God

I enjoy your questions. They are quite provocative, aren’t they? You question your faith regularly--examining it like a garment that requires inspection of its fabric, its construction, its seams. A litany of questions ensue: What would happen if I did this? What would it mean if I responded in this way? Is Jesus someone I love then? Is God who He says He is if I find Him to do this? What do I believe about God? About who He says He is? Do I believe any of it?

You spend your days pledging your interest in faith matters, you say--hoping to figure out things difficult--impossible--to explain. It feels good, like you are the one in control. Wrestling out what you believe in your own head--and with words--through language and reason and argument--feels satisfying, like you are doing something important and valuable and worthy. You like that. It makes you feel worthy when, in fact, you feel disqualified, unvalued, and small.

I love you the same, you know, whether you have this all figured out or not. Your questions are wonderful--to a point--and then the questions just become a distraction, an activity, a hobby, an excuse for faith when what I care most about is you and relationship and love. There is mystery here for good reason; you can’t fully comprehend Me, after all. But you don’t need to comprehend Me in order to love Me, to know Me, and follow Me. Is that what you believe? Are you stuck on the conviction that you must understand Me in order to be in relationship with Me? That you must know all the ins-and-outs in order to say yes, you are a follower, a believer, a lover of Christ?

This will never happen.

Mystery is a way I draw you to me. The wonder of a leaf curling in a blaze of orange in autumn. The swell of waves and the depths of the sea. The birth of stars and galaxies. The curve of the earth in its orbit. The colors and sounds and textures and wonders of water and air and a baby’s laugh and a blazing fire and a violin’s song and a blue-footed boobie’s walk and the way I look at you and and the way I talk to you and love and love and love.

The mystery of love is the greatest wonder of all. Impossible to wrap your mind around completely. But your heart knows. And your spirit knows. And your body and your mind must simply surrender to the mystery. They must throw in the towel. They must give up the fight to understand what is unnecessary to fully understand. I love you. My Son, fully God, came to earth as a human man to walk with you and speak with you and live with you and suffer with you. He came so that He could die for you. He came so you could experience wonder and mystery and delight and joy and love from Me over and over and over and over and over again. Because I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

Give it up now--give up to Me the questions that send you in circles. Pay attention to what questions come from Me--ones I ask you--and ones that send you in a spiral of discouragement, disillusionment, and doubt. You are made to question, to think, to ponder, to challenge, to scrutinize, to consider. But you are also made to believe, to trust, to know who I am and how I love and how I pursue and how I desire to partner with you and your heart and your mind. Pay attention to the questions. Drop the ones that aren’t worth asking. Look to Me for new ones. And watch fear subside and doubt disintegrate and distraction and discouragement and your disheartened attitude dissolve. Come now, give me those questions. Watch me renew your mind--how I fill it with different questions after you give the old ones to Me.

Exercise:

It is good to ponder God and His mysteries. The wise King Solomon wrote: “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” That is from Proverbs chapter 25, verse 2 . And there’s so much we don’t know about Him―and so much He wants us to know. And the process of seeking to understand turns our hearts and minds toward Him―if our attitudes are right.

You see, there is, also, so much we’ll never understand. Because He is God, and we are not. And if we struggle with that fact, it can get really in the way of relationship with Him. If we demand to know, if we demand clarity and certainty, and withhold ourselves until we get to them. If we wait to engage with God until we wrestle all mystery to the ground. Then our questioning turns to pride and cynicism and will turn our hearts and minds away from Him.

But if we’re willing to move forward, to engage with God, to trust a bit, even when we don’t know everything, then relationship can begin and flourish. He can work with that. But that takes humility. It takes some surrender. It takes a willingness to appreciate and to embrace mystery and wonder―not a desire to conquer them.

Are you okay with that? Are you okay with not knowing everything?

Consider the book of Job. Job was overwhelmed by suffering, having lost his family, all his wealth, and even his health. He wrestled with God, asking Him questions: “Why was I even born?” “How can humans ever be acceptable and loved by God?” And, “Is there life after death?” Job hungers for understanding. He wants answers to big questions.

After a long silence, God answered Job. Here is what He said: “Where were you when I created the earth? Tell me, . . . Who decided on its size? . . . Who came up with the blueprints and measurements? How was its foundation poured, and who set the cornerstone, while the morning stars sang in chorus and all the angels shouted praise? . . . Can you get the attention of the clouds, and commission a shower of rain? Can you take charge of the lightning bolts and have them report to you for orders? . . . And who sets out food for the ravens when their young cry to God, fluttering about because they have no food?” That is from Job chapter 38 .

So here’s the crazy thing. God, on one hand, is so big and so powerful we can’t comprehend Him. And even the extent we can comprehend is amazing, mind-blowing. Think about it. It’s laughable to try to compare the works of our hands to the works of His. But, on the other hand, despite that size and power, He actually wants a close relationship with each one of us. He sees and knows each one of us―and wants to be in close relationship. He wants conversation. He wants to share life with us.

Because of that, we can actually bring our questions, when we have them, even our toughest, to Him. We can wrestle with Him, and not without Him, about what we don’t understand, what we are wondering, what we believe and what we don’t. Then we’re doing what we were made to do. For we were never made to ponder big questions on our own. We are made to share our thoughts, our questions, our confusions, our frustrations―and ponder them with Him and allow Him to teach and father us into greater understanding.

But, to have relationship with Him, we need to keep things in perspective. He is God, and we are not. There is much that He knows and understands that we cannot―and we need to be okay with that. Again, we have to be willing to appreciate and to embrace mystery and wonder―and not try to conquer them.

Holy Spirit says, “Give it up now―give up to Me the questions that send you in circles. Pay attention to what questions come from Me―ones I ask you―and ones that send you in a spiral of discouragement, disillusionment, and doubt. You are made to question, to think, to ponder, to challenge, to scrutinize, to consider. But you are also made to believe, to trust, to know who I am and how I love and how I pursue and how I desire to partner with you and your heart and your mind. Pay attention to the questions. Drop the ones that aren’t worth asking. Look to Me for new ones. And watch fear subside and doubt disintegrate and distraction and discouragement and your disheartened attitude dissolve. Come now, give Me those questions. Watch Me renew your mind―how I fill it with different questions after you give the old ones to Me.”

What questions do you have for God? What questions do haunt you? What questions hang in the back of your mind? Let’s ask Him those, right now.

Father, I confess, I struggle sometimes because I don’t understand―and I want to. I have a hard time balancing my deep longing to know, on one hand, and my acceptance that I cannot know everything, on the other. Help me learn how to hold both of those things, at the same time. Teach me how to search for answers, and how to embrace mystery and wonder too.

In Your Son’s name I pray, Amen.

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