Start Asking

Kids ask millions of questions, don’t they? Especially at what seems inopportune times like bedtime, when you’re trying to navigate traffic, or when you’re in the middle of trying to meet a deadline. What can seem annoying just actually may be what we need to think about.

No, I try not to think too much about why the sky is blue or why cats can’t fly. I mean the more fundamental type of questions. Such as “how”, and that perpetually perplexing question: “Why?”

As kids we ask why. And then as we got older, we stopped asking why. Perhaps our parents discouraged it.

“Dad, why do I have to go to school?”

“Because I said so, that’s why!”

Yeah, guilty here. I swore I would never give that answer to my kids, but the truth is that sometimes I have just been tired or mentally drained and that’s the best I could come up with.

God gave us an inquisitive mind. Here’s why: God made this amazing world to display His handy work, to show off, if you will. And when we investigate why, it causes us to recognize His greatness. He made us to ask questions.

But somewhere along the lines, many of us stopped. Maybe we felt jaded by the answers we got. Perhaps we just accepted the status quo. Is it possible we got so busy with life we forgot that we were created to ask questions?

Here is where I am going with this: We need to start asking questions again. I’m not suggesting questioning authority. I am suggesting questioning the status quo. Questions if asked with the right heart behind them aren’t threatening. Questioning something doesn’t mean rebelling, it means learning and understanding.

Now, I’m not talking about being a gossiping busy-body. Sadly, we ask those types of questions way too often. Stop it.

But what would happen if you and I would start asking “how” and “why” more frequently?

A few thoughts:

1. Asking Questions Makes Us Better Parents

Ok, maybe you don’t have kids, but hear me out. As a parent in my early 30’s with 3 kids, I DEFINITELY don’t have it figured out. So, I could try to figure this whole “being a dad” thing out on my own, or I can learn from the successes and mistakes of MILLIONS of moms and dads who have been down this road before.

When our middle child, Sophia, was diagnosed with epilepsy I had a gazillion questions. And I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to keep a qualified doctor on 24-hr standby. But I have several friends and connections who have been through this. I know that I can ask them questions. I’m part of a support network for parents working through this.

But it doesn’t have to be a major illness the prompts inquiries. Asking questions of other parents such as, “How did you get Johnny to improve his reading comprehension?” “Any tips to help Ella learn to share with the other kids at the babysitter’s?”

Being a better parent begins with asking how and why. In my experience as a Pastor and a School Board member, I can tell you anecdotally that not nearly enough parents are asking questions.

2. Asking Questions Makes Us Better Community Members

We live in an age of fake news, agenda driven media, and blatant lies shared on social media. Liberal, Conservative, unaffiliated, we’ve let others do the thinking for us. We are too busy to do the research into what is affecting our lives, our communities, our world. So, because we’re too busy, we let others look into it for us, let them do the thinking and asking.

And in settling for another’s manipulative answer, we’ve become sheep of uncaring and dishonest shepherds. I have a cousin who lives on the other side of the country with VASTLY different political views than I. He taught me a valuable lesson of asking questions. Each day, he spends a few hours reading half a dozen or so newspapers. (Newspapers are these archaic devices of media where words are printed on a piece of paper, which is then sold or delivered to your home.) His reason? You need to be informed before you pontificate.

Imagine how much better our communities could be if we started asking why or how? Why is this person protesting? How is this person really different from me? Why do some people think gender or race automatically creates privilege? Does it? Instead of beating down people who disagree with us, what if we sought to understand them? We don’t have to agree with them, but could you maybe just ask and then quiet long enough to hear them out?

3. Asking Questions Makes Us Better

Most of us are part of some sort of organization or institution. Maybe it’s a local church or little league or PTO or the local historical society. Maybe you’re in the Lion’s club or some other fraternity. That institution was created or exists for a purpose. Do you know what that purpose is? Can you articulate it in a sentence? Why are you doing what you are doing?

Every group has a life cycle. And when we stop asking why or how, that group begins to die. “Why do we do this? How can we do it better? How does doing this accomplish our why?” Every group needs to ask and answer these questions regularly. The mission of the group is at stake.

Where I serve, in the local church world, we are often scared to ask why. We’re afraid we will upset someone. My position is that the mission of the local church, to love God and love others, making disciples, is FAR more important than someone getting upset over questions being asked. Far to often the answers to “why” and “how” in our local churches comes down to “I don’t know” or “we’ve always done it that way.” Both of those are bad answers to such important questions.

4. Asking Questions Makes Us Better Christ-Followers

Some pastors get nervous when people begin asking questions about God. We like our cookie cutter answers we memorized in Sunday School. When I was 9 years old, in one Sunday School class we played a trivia game, where the teacher would give us hints and we had to guess the Bible character. I always guess Jesus or Barnabas. I figured eventually I’d get it right.

But when it comes to questions of faith, I’m not threatened. I don’t have all the answers, that’s for sure! But, God does. And look, I know that sounds trite, but it’s accurate. Jesus stands up to scrutiny. The Bible stands up to critical scholarship. As an Evangelical, the doctrines that I follow aren’t contrived or invented on a whimsy.

Asking God why and how don’t threaten him. He actually invites our questions. He invites us to search and seek Him. He tells us in 4:29 “But from there you will seek the LORD you God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

When we wrestle with worry or doubt or simple don’t understand something about our walk with Christ, He invites us to reason together with Him.

There are so many ways in which asking questions will make us better. I could go on ad infinitum. But the best way is for you to start asking questions today. Reclaim the inquisitive nature you once had. You heavenly Father created you to ask.