“Tell me your story”
I recall sharing my life story with a very wise man one afternoon in my mid-twenties. After I rambled for 20 minutes or so, trying to capture the sense and thrust of my unique story, he responded. A few affirmations, observations, and even a challenge or two. His first noticing still lingers with me today.
“Rob, it seems like growing up you knew all ‘the answers’ before you knew what ‘your questions’ were. I bet that is very confusing for you.”
I had never thought about it quite that way before, but his words deeply resonated with me.
He paused for a moment and then continued, “I suspect your growing up into Christ is going to look a lot like growing into your questions… and then bumping into the Spirit and his kindness already there ahead of you, amidst the questions of your life.”
30 years later, this framework has yet to disappoint as a way to see God’s formation in my life. This “growing into my questions” has often been the way the Spirit has graciously met me along the way.
Connecting truth and life
Recently, I have been reminded of that encounter as I have been re-reading a very thoughtful book by Tomáš Halík, entitled Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing In Us (2009). Halík writes,
I once saw on the wall of a Prague subway station the inscription “Jesus is the answer,” probably written by someone on the way back from some high-spirited evangelistic gathering. Yet someone else had aptly added the words: “But what was the question?” It reminded me of the comment made by the philosopher Eric Voegelin that the biggest problem for today’s Christians wasn’t that they didn’t have the right answers, but they’d forgotten the question to which they were the answers.
Answers without questions—without the questions that originally provoked them, but also without the subsequent questions that are provoked by every answer—are like trees without roots. But how often are “Christian truths” presented to us like felled, lifeless trees in which birds can no longer find a nest? (Tomáš Halík, Patience with God)
This particularly thought-provoking section of the first chapter draws me back to those perceptive and perhaps prophetic words of that very wise man. Both in my own formation and in walking with other friends, I have been struck by the critical importance of making space that helps others grow into the central questions and deep need of our lives. Halík continues,
It takes the confrontation of questions and answers to return to a real meaning and dynamic to our statements. Truth happens in the course of dialogue. There is always a temptation to allow our answers to bring to an end the process of searching, as if the topic of the conversation was a problem that has now been solved. But when a fresh question arrives, the unexhausted depths of mystery show through once more. Let it be said over and over again: faith is not a question of problems but of mystery, so we must never abandon the path of seeking and asking. (Halík, Patience with God)
Connecting truth and life requires honest and caring dialogue. If our formation in Christ is to move beyond a mostly heady exercise (“answers without questions“; trees without roots”) and become a place where our faith is personalized and lived out, then may we “never abandon the path of seeking and asking.”
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.” (Psalm 84: 5)
Questions to ponder or share with a friend:
- In the Christian life, how can we have “the right answers” but have forgotten the question to which they were answers?
- What is a fresh question in your life that is drawing your attention? Through this question, could the Spirit be trying to more deeply connect truth and life? How so?
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Robert Loane serves as President of VantagePoint3 Ministries, seeking to both learn and encourage a more relational way of life and ministry. He is co-author of Deep Mentoring: Guiding Others on Their Leadership Journey (IVP, 2012) and A Mentoring Guide: Christ. Conversation. Companionship (VP3, 2019). He has been the lead writer of The Journey process and other VP3 processes for the last 20 years. At the core of his life and work, Rob loves helping people find ways to have better conversations about the things that matter most in their lives.