Pop The Question
“What would happen if I rode a beam of light?” 16-year-old Albert Einstein asked himself.
I was asking myself how to get a girlfriend as a teen, but Einstein was asking questions about relativity.
We are not the same.
That one question led him to develop theories that revolutionized our understanding of space, time, and gravity.
One question changed our understanding of the universe forever. Questions have always changed the course of human history.
“Will you marry me?” has started families.
“Will you forgive me?” has restored relationships.
“Do you want the job?” has launched careers.
“Are you okay?” has saved lives.
“Can we start over?” has healed relationships that seemed beyond repair.
“What must I do to be saved?” has changed eternity.
One question can alter the direction of a day, a decade, or a destiny.
The quality of our lives is often determined by the quality of the questions we are willing to ask. A question mark may be one of the most powerful punctuation marks in the world.
Entire businesses have been built because someone asked a better question. Entire discoveries have been made because someone refused to stop asking questions. Entire lives have changed because someone had the courage to ask one.
Which makes Jesus even more fascinating.
The One who had all the answers spent so much of His time asking questions.
In my study time, I have been diving into some of Jesus’ more obscure practices.
Sure, we know He prayed. We know He fasted. We know He went to the temple.
But did you know He napped?
Did you know He routinely walked away from large crowds?
That would be a difficult practice for many people today. We spend our lives trying to get people to notice us, yet Jesus often seemed to walk away from the attention.
Some of His habits seem almost rebellious compared to our current way of living.
But the one that really caught my attention was one I had never considered. Jesus asked questions.
A lot of questions.
When blind men came to Jesus asking for healing, He asked them:
“What do you want Me to do for you?”
It sounds like a strange question. They were blind. Wasn’t their need obvious? Could Jesus not see their need to see?
Of course He could.
So why ask?
Because questions are not always designed to give the person asking information. Sometimes they are designed to transform the person answering.
Jesus wasn’t asking because He lacked knowledge. He was asking because He wanted them to engage. He wanted them to bring their faith into the conversation.
Jesus asked more than 300 recorded questions in the Gospels. Approximately 30% of what Jesus spoke was in question form.
Which made me ask a question of my own.
Why?
Why would the all-knowing Savior ask questions?
Questions are used to get answers. Jesus already had all the answers.
The deeper I looked, the more I realized questions are powerful because they reveal something in us.
When God asked Adam, “Where are you?” He wasn’t asking because He couldn’t find him.
When Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” He wasn’t gathering a survey.
The questions were never for God’s benefit. They were for ours.
Questions reveal.
Questions uncover assumptions we didn’t know we were carrying. Questions force us to slow down long enough to examine what we actually believe.
Years ago, I listened to an old sales training tape by Zig Ziglar.
If you are under 40, a tape was basically a podcast that only worked if you had a pencil nearby.
Ziglar talked about the importance of asking questions. Great salespeople don’t just make statements.
They ask questions.
Questions help locate a need. Questions uncover desires. Questions reveal obstacles.
A good salesperson knows people will often tell you exactly what they need if you ask the right questions.
But Ziglar also talked about another powerful thing questions do.
They create attention.
It’s true, right?
Nothing made me pay attention in school faster than when a teacher asked me a question in front of the class.
I could have been thinking about lunch, sports, or anything else happening outside the window.
Then suddenly:
“Brandon, what do you think?”
My brain was immediately back in the room.
Questions pull us into the moment. Maybe that is one reason Jesus asked so many.
Questions demand participation.
Statements can be ignored.
Questions require engagement.
A statement tells you what to think.
A question forces you to think.
A sermon can go in one ear and out the other.
A question follows you home.
Research shows children ask around 100 questions per day. Adults ask about 6.
Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we lose our questions. I don’t think it’s because we know more.
I think it’s because we wonder less.
We lose our holy curiosity.
As we age, we don’t just lose our hair. We often lose our sense of wonder. Yet the brain was designed for questions.
Questions create new neural pathways. Questions help us learn. Questions improve memory.
Questions pull us out of the ruts of old thinking.
A healthy mind is an inquisitive mind.
A healthy faith is too.
Maybe some of us aren’t stuck because we lack answers. Maybe we are stuck because we stopped asking questions.
Jesus said, “You have not because you ask not.”
What question are you avoiding right now?
What assumption needs to be challenged?
What conversation needs to be started?
What prayer needs to be prayed?
What if the next chapter of your life doesn’t begin with an answer?
What if it begins with a question?
Followers of Jesus are called to orient our lives around His practices. That includes prayer. That includes serving.
That includes asking questions.
Ask yourself better questions.
Ask God deeper questions.
Ask the people around you meaningful questions.
Show interest in their stories.
Listen longer.
Wonder more.
Because on the other side of a sincere question, you may find an answer.
And sometimes, on the other side of a question, you may find a completely different life.
As a mom, I was often floored by the questions my kids asked me, especially when they were little. As a student, I asked questions all the time. Not always out loud, but often enough to develop good research skills. As a teacher, I encouraged my students to ask questions. But, just as you pointed out, somewhere along the way I began asking fewer and fewer.
I truly love how you explain the importance of questions. I was not aware how often Jesus asked questions. But now that I am I cannot help but see it! He didn’t ask because He didn’t already know the answer. He asked so that we might grow in faith. I love how you put that.
I enjoyed this post a lot. The life of every student of Scripture, every seeker of truth, revolves around questions. It reminds me of a line from the song "Could it Be" by Michael Card, which says
"Could it be that questions tell us more than answers ever do?"