Nothing like getting up early on an overcast Saturday morning to get to as many garage sales as possible, before all the good books and Pottery Barn baskets are sold. Starbucks helps though. That, and finding one or two books that you hadn't expected to find, or that had been trying to find for years. Then you get to enjoy a quiet afternoon at home while your son naps and your wife is out shopping (of course) and you mow the lawn. Except that last part. Instead, you waste a full two hours eating lunch, watching Scrubs, and milling about on the computer (not writing a single thing). Oh, the simple things. I'm pretty sure the question "Baby, can you mow the lawn while I'm gone" will only ever make me think of other possible ways to waste two hours. That is, until your wife comes home finally, and you go outside to greet her, and the grass actually does seem pretty tall and you have nothing to show for the two hours she was gone besides a guilty conscience and a full stomach.
Then in Sunday school, on a somewhat-lazy, laid-back morning looking forward to spending time learning and growing and maturing, you're hit with not a few surprises. Namely, some questions, or rather an entire discussion, that wakes you up a lot better than the scratchy homemade coffee does (no time for Starbucks that morning). Instead of the Sunday class listening to and soaking up the teaching, someone who's relatively new asks some rarely-heard questions of the group leader that makes all sit up and catch their breath.
People tend to underestimate the power and potential of questions nowadays. The questions we ask can accomplish multiple things, besides as a means of getting the answers we want to the questions we ask. We can reveal what we really think and feel about a person or subject. We can also reveal how little we really know about them or it. We can suddenly show our true colors and true agenda, where before we just went with the flow, waiting for the right time to strike. With just the right tone, just the right choice of words, with just the right timing we can change the whole mood and meaning of, say, a Sunday school group meeting. With questions, we can challenge assumptions and beliefs, forcing the spotlight on a subject that doesn't get much every-day discussion and practically requires entire theological dissertations to explain and defend.
With questions having the power and potential they do, it is supremely important that we understand how we react to and view them, for there is such a thing as different kinds of questions. Peter writes in his first letter that we as believers must always be "ready to make a defense... for the hope that is in you (NASB)," which seems to be easier said than done, especially when those asking questions of us have a set agenda and know how to pinpoint and exploit weaknesses (like the lack of good coffee). Not that we can excuse ourselves by this, but we must at the same time acknowledge where and what our weaknesses are, in order to repair and replenish before the next question, which will most certainly come. We are to be prepared. But that doesn't mean we will only be questioned when we are ready; in fact, for some strange we only seem to get questions when we are at the least ready. Quite strange, in fact.
Yet just because some questions are asked of us with intentional malice or to support an agenda, does not mean that we should look down upon all questions and questioning. In fact, the Bereans in Acts were called "noble-minded" for their "searching (of) the Scriptures," and for comparing what was written with what was being preached to them. By definition, "searching... to see whether these things were so" would denote someone asking questions, asking for clarification on a difficult passage, or how this one teaching is influenced by another passage. Too often we look down on someone in the church who asks a lot of questions; we brush them off with something like a casual "just have more faith" comment. While there is a point where we are to have the "child-like faith" that Christ talks about, that does not remove the need for some of us to ask another question or two before we can get to that point.
The motives behind questions are the biggest thing to consider when responding. The questioner could just be trying to prove a point by proving you wrong, or could be trying their hardest to understand the bountiful grace of our Holy Father. To those that come at us with swords drawn, we must be prepared to stand tall and meet them head-on, in order to both defend and convince of the truth. With others we must do our best to answer questions, praying for wisdom along the way, while we both grow in our eternal hope together. We should not take the sword to the one who merely wants to understand, nor should we simply sit down and have a dialogue with those that seek to hinder, pervert, and destroy.
The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.
-Benjamin Franklin
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