Questioners included among blessed
Everywhere I look, I see questions hanging in the air, just waiting for someone to pluck them down and play with them.
Some of the questions are ones children ask of God:
“Dear God, are you really invisible or is that just a trick?”
“Dear God, did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?”
“Dear God, instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you’ve got now?”
One of my most enjoyable church camp experiences came when I was director of a camp for fifth- and sixth-graders. I put out a tin can for the kids to put their faith-questions in. Then each morning we would spend time talking about those questions.
Some questions were easily answered. Many were not. All were treated with respect.
Too many of us go through our adult lives without a tin can where we can put our questions so they can be addressed with respect.
They possibly may not get answered at all. Or the answers aren’t the ones we expect or want.
Back in February 2002, I wrote another column about questions. I began with a homegrown beatitude: “Blessed are the questioners, for they know given answers are not the only answers.”
It is still a beatitude that confers significant blessing on those who hear and heed.
Recently I came across a special little story again as I reread Joan Chittister’s “Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today” (HarperSanFrancisco, $13.95). It is very much worth repeating:
“Once upon a time a visitor came to the monastery looking for the purpose and meaning of life. The teacher said to the visitor, ‘If what you seek is truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.’
‘I know,’ the visitor said. ‘To find truth, I must have an overwhelming passion for it.’
‘No,’ the teacher said. ‘In order to find truth, you must have an unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.’ “
Questions can transform life when they are born of authentic humility and unquenchable curiosity.
The other day, my wife, Sue, was commenting about a 92-year-old member of our congregation. The woman is a wonderful role model for persons of any age.
One characteristic Sue mentioned was this woman’s insatiable curiosity about all things in life.
She has been part of our congregation since the early 1930s, but she still augments her faith journey with occasional trips into other faith traditions. She knows intuitively that we don’t have all the answers. (Phooey – we don’t even have all the questions.)
She is a seeker of truth. I believe that is one reason she remains so physically, mentally and spiritually vital at 92. I can only hope I continue to stoke my curiosity fires as long as I am alive, too.
Our world is so chaotic these days, it’s little wonder that we seek answers in a nearly obsessive way.
And every day, we are confronted with people who are more than willing to give us the answers they tell us we need – religious answers, cosmetic answers, economic prosperity answers, health and nutrition answers, political answers.
The answers seem endless. But what questions do they answer?
I suspect the questions are far fewer than the answers given. For all of the questions that still hang in the air around my head – and perhaps your head as well – many are variations on a few central questions about life-meaning.
In Luke 10:25, a lawyer asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus knew the lawyer had the answer already, so he asked, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” The lawyer had the correct answer: “You shall love the love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbor as your self.”
Then in Luke 18:18, Jesus was asked the very same question by a different man. And Jesus gave him a different answer: “You have kept the law, so there is one thing left for you to do. Sell all you have, give your money to the poor, and follow me.”
Jesus gave two different answers to the same question. Both answers focused on how our central relationships with God, others and our own selves are nourished or depleted on a daily basis.
Perhaps the questions hanging in the air around us are simply variations of a few central questions. I suspect there are far more answers offered than the questions really need.
“Blessed are the questioners, for they know given answers are not the only answers.”
The blessed questioner may be the one who is able to connect an answer to his question that makes a great difference in his life – and in the lives of those around him.
I’m sure God must have a tin can for our questions!