By David Neuen
While it is encouraging to the ego to have answers, I’m often more reliable at providing questions than solutions. It’s part of how I am hardwired, to look at both sides of a situation and ride the see-saw back and forth. I am affirmed when I hear Lovett Weems write, “Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.” He is likely reflecting on the leadership style of Jesus who replied to many inquiries by posing his own reflective questions.
Who do you say I am? Do you want to get well? Why are you so afraid? Do you still not see or understand?
Christ is the master of raising life altering questions, ones that we should rest in and ponder until we are reshaped and remade. But are we too busy to spend much time with them? Are we overburdened with asking our own of him?
What do you want me to do? Why does suffering keep happening to me? Are you going to answer my prayer or not?
If Jesus supplies us an answer it feels like a precious gift to hold tight to as we move on in life. But when Jesus gives us a question, and if we are willing to ponder it, we realize we are being drawn closer to him. “Jesus seems to have a bias for doing things in a way that sustains and deepens our relationship with him.”[1]
Today make space for the questions of the Lord. If you have a Bible nearby, turn to the Book of Romans, Chapter 8. In this writing, the Apostle Paul, reflecting on his faith in Christ, raises five questions that cause us to wrestle with our own assumptions and fears. My hope is that by spending time in these five questions for a moment each day you will overcome insecurity and feelings of doubt and lack.
1. “If God is for us who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) 2. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along, with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) 3. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” (Romans 8:33) 4. “Who then is the one who condemns? (8:34) 5. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (8:35)
In these questions I hear of God’s favor, God’s outpouring of resources, God’s longing to call us redeemed, and God’s relentless pursuit on our lives in love. Nothing can do us lasting harm as we are in God’s care. We cannot experience a shortfall in God’s abundance. We are accepted and welcomed despite our mistakes. No accusation will stick to us because of God’s cleansing power. And whatever is putting a distance between you and God can be overcome. Nothing in the universe has the power or ability to cause the smallest gap between you and God’s measureless, reliable love revealed to us in Jesus. You cannot question that fact!
[1] “An Unhurried Leader” by Alan Fadling