Questions
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For as long as I can remember I have been asking questions. I always wanted ‘to know:’ “What?” “Who?” “Why?” I’m sure it must have been the bane of my parent’s existence. I’ve been naturally curious all of my life.
In an essay entitled, “Curiosity Is Holy,” Peter W. Marty, Editor of The Christian Century journal, observes: “I’ve decided that incurious people do not make great conversation partners. To be absent of curiosity is to display a lack of interest in others, even if unintentionally so. It’s difficult to build a close friendship with someone who places a low priority on getting to know your world. Knowledge or information may get shared. But if the other person doesn’t take joy in creating a welcoming space for you to flourish, the conversation struggles to ever get rolling.” In a world of ideologies, closed eyes and ears, Marty’s words have a pertinence that is unsettling. We are often so busy shouting at each other that we don’t know each other, and, it seems, don’t desire to. The implications for matters of faith are huge.
The Biblical faith is rooted in stories - conversations informed by holy curiosity and sacred questions: wondering how the world came to be, why people are the way they are, how love and beauty can transform us, does God care about me, what does God expect of me, and more. Unfortunately, over the years and millennia we have turned the stories into ideas, turned the ideas into dogmas, stifling curiosity and closing ourselves off from an experience of the Holy.
When Moses turned aside to see a bush that was aflame but not consumed, his holy curiosity became a sacred encounter, calling him to a vocation that transformed history. When he asked who it was that would dare send him forth to confront Pharaoh, he encountered the Great “I AM” the Living God!
In his essay, Marty goes on to assert: “In the case of our own spiritual lives, questions of God and of other people are essential to the character of faith. To be without questions of God is less an indication of confident faith and more a lack of spiritual depth.”
To be honest, if I had to choose between a “confident faith” and “spiritual depth,” I would opt for the latter. For me it’s a matter of living in a healthy relationship with God and being part of a holy conversation. It’s very easy to get so wrapped up in one’s own faith and forget who God is and must be. We sing “How great Thou art!” not how great I am for knowing how great Thou art. Our faith is not the point! God is and must be the focus!
Spiritual depth, I believe, is rooted in sacred questions - those borne in the cries of the soul in the midst of life’s most difficult moments, those rooted in holy curiosity about how God is present in life’s most indescribable joys and beauty, those sighs too deep for words, those ecstasies beyond imagining, those visions of hope when all else seems to be in chaos - holy questions that deepen our relationship with God!
And then perhaps, just perhaps, the most sacred questions are the ones that come from the Divine: “Whom shall I send?” “Who do you say that I am?” “Do you love me?” Our answers to these sacred question will reveal our spiritual depth!
The Rev. F. Richard Garland is a retired clergy member of the New England Annual Conference. This article is republished from his Facebook post. To republish this content elsewhere, please contact the author for permission.