How did we get to where we are?
Do I really get to choose what to believe? Or do life’s circumstances dictate what and whom I trust? Does what I was taught is true hold fast all my life? Do events that occur around me or to me shape what I perceive as truth? Do I get to select the path I’ll take in life? What influences my choices?
Of all the minds in the world – you (questions) have to walk into mine.
For me personally, all of creation resounds with a chorus of, “Yes, Helen – there is a God!” I was taught that God is God and that He is good, all the time. But events and circumstances show up on the path I’ve chosen and beg me to question. I question why God does or allows the things that go on around me. I question how His “on time” sometimes appears to be “too late” or “too little”. I question why I question. It seems like it would be simpler to just believe what we’re told. But to some extent, we all question.
When I told my young son, “The iron is hot, don’t touch it,” something in him compelled him to find out for himself. Nope – mom didn’t lie, or was it that he needed to know for himself what hot was, or how it applied to something that was never in the oven? I don’t believe our questions are shallow at all, but actually have layers and layers of investigative efforts behind them. When I told that same son that Crisco is not frosting, again, he had to taste to believe. (By the way, again I was correct.)
Repetition teaches us. When we experience the same outcome over and over again, we begin to trust that it’s the outcome we will always get… until we experience something different. Then we begin to question the outcomes we had up to that point. And rightfully! We begin to investigate what made this outcome different. A chair that’s faithfully held us at the dinner table until now becomes suspect: did it let me down because it wasn’t built correctly twenty years ago or because over time it’s taken a beating and needs repair, or because I’ve gradually gained fifty pounds? (No, a chair did not really collapse beneath me.) Would it be logical to say that the chair never really did support me?
To question, or not to question – this is my question!
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. –Isaiah 1:18 (KJV emphasis mine.)
I have always been a person that would question things. I had to learn for myself even if someone would answer my questions. More times than not it would get me in trouble. Even as a young child when I attended a Catholic school we were taught that it was not right to question our faith or anything in the Bible, but I had so many questions that couldn't be answered. Yes, I believe the questions that we have and the answers we would get, weather it was given to us or learned by us, would help to mold us into the person that we eventually would become. And as the saying goes, we are never too old to learn (or question) :)
ReplyDeleteLike Anne I was taught in a Catholic school not to ask questions. I accept too much without questioning, even questioning God is okay. He can take it.
ReplyDeleteHelen I did have a chair fall apart while sitting on it. It didn't collaspe but one of the legs fell off, it stayed balanced on three legs as I gazed down at the fallen limb. My kids certainly thought it was funny. The chair was old and I weighed a lot less than I do now so overweight was not the issue. I can laugh about it now.
If I stop asking questions, I stop learning. If I stop learning, am I still alive?
ReplyDeleteQUESTIONS ARE GOOD!
Anne, the questions and answers that have filled our lives so far -have made us who we are SO FAR! We've got to keep searching and being shaped into the likeness and image of the God Who made us!
And Diane - that's just classic comedy! I can see the reel rolling in my head.