Why 100 Tough Questions?
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Then Jesus walks in. Smiling broadly at your look of total amazement, he holds out his hands so you can see the scars. But you know it’s Him, even without the scars. Shutting the door softly behind him, he sits down in front of you and says simply: “You have 30 minutes to ask me any questions you want – anything.” And with that, he places an hourglass on your desk and says, “It starts now.” Your mind reels. This is happening too fast. He should have given you a bit of advance notice so you could think this thing through. But glancing at the hourglass in fear, you test the waters: “Uh, who will win the World Series next year?” Without hesitation came the reply: “The Padres.” “Really? But they’ve never won a World Series!” Jesus just smiled. “You’ll see.” That was too easy. Thinking quickly, how about some history. “Who really killed JFK?” Again there was no hesitation. Springing forth from the mind of God, there was no thinking or remembering involved: Jesus just knew the answer, and he spoke it as easily as if someone had asked him what day it was. Emboldened, the questions flew like the wind. What really happened to the dinosaurs? How exactly was the universe created? (You didn’t dimly comprehend the creation physics behind that last question, but at least now you know more creation facts than any scientist dead or alive.) How old is the earth? Is there life on other planets? Really? Which ones? How about the Ark of the Covenant – where is it? Jesus offered a curious look, but pointed to the notepad in front of you and said simply, “write down the GPS coordinates, it’s the easiest way for me to tell you how to get to it.” Scribbling furiously, your mind was already at work on the next volley of questions. It was high time someone answer the question of authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and you are about to get the scoop. Pausing only momentarily, your mind turns to your own life. Why did God let you lose your job that time? Why hasn’t your promotion happened yet? What’s the winning lottery number for today? How about for the next couple of weeks? More furious scribbling while you smile at the thought that you won’t need that promotion after all. Why didn’t God heal your grandmother of cancer? Or prevent your grandfather from committing suicide? Did your best friend in high school go to heaven or hell when he died in that car accident? Why, why, why, why, why? To say that your mind is spinning just doesn’t do it justice. You find yourself swinging rapidly through giddiness at knowing things no man or woman has ever known before; then deep sadness as you realize there is nothing more that can be done for your best friend from high school; then to a moment of reflection as you try to take in some of the reasons God engineered your life the way he did. You must have been lost in thought for a moment, and then the most terrible thing happened to jolt you back to the present. Jesus was gone. Not a word, not a whisper. The seat was empty, and so was the notepad in front of you. It was as if you hadn’t written a thing. The only thing keeping you from doubting whether you had dreamed the whole thing was a finely polished hourglass sitting in front of you, the sand lying silent and unmoving at the bottom. In a panic your head shoots up to the wall clock, which confirms the time to be exactly thirty minutes past three. Rushing to the hallway, you look for him but he is not there. Your shoulders slump with unbearable regret: you had no chance to give him a hug, no chance to say goodbye, and no chance to thank him for his time. And worst of all: there was no chance to get to know him more deeply. You had asked an amazing array of questions, yet none drew you closer to him. The reason behind the 100 Tough Questions is simple: the story above is absolutely true. Oh, not in the literal sense. Jesus didn’t plop down in my office one day holding an hourglass. But the story is completely true nonetheless. See, our problem is that we endlessly ask God questions designed to satisfy our curiosity and our perceived need to know, whereas the best questions are the ones that draw us nearer to him. During the thirty minutes, Jesus faithfully upheld his end of the deal: he would answer every question posed. But as the conversation wore on, the disappointment in his eyes began to show. What good does it do to know whether the Shroud of Turin is Jesus’ authentic burial cloth? How will knowing about the dinosaurs have the faintest benefit for us? Even the questions about the problems in your own life didn’t solve the problem; they just gave you some answers. And that is precisely what we do in real life: we have elevated the question of why to the point where it eclipses the types of questions that can actually make a difference in our lives. questions designed to satisfy our curiosity and our perceived need to know, whereas the best questions are the ones that draw us nearer to him.” I’m as curious as the next guy, but in the final analysis I don’t care when the world will end. I am more interested in what God thinks about my attitude towards money. I’m desperate to know the #1 thing he wants to tell me. I want to ask him what kind of legacy I’m leaving while I still have the chance to make some changes. I want to know if God is pleased with me. I want to know if I really love others, and I want to know if I am doing everything he has called me to do. I want to know if he considers me to be sexually pure. Do you think that on a human level I am ready for God to hit me with all of those answers? No way. But something compels me to ask because I know that part of growing up means dealing with some things that aren’t at all easy to deal with. And boy do I need to do some growing up. Asking the tough questions enables a growing process like no other. What of the notepad that went mysteriously blank? The symbolism there is that all the things we mistakenly thought were important have been wiped out, amounting to nothing but a memory. Toward the end of their lives, far too many people experience the deep regret of realizing the things we chased after were little more than distractions. They realize fifty years of church attendance hasn’t done much for them because aside from going through the motions and the communions and the chicken dinners, they haven’t really chased after God. Put another way, consider what happened toward the end of the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones and his friend are bound to a pole while the evil Nazis prepare to open the Ark of the Covenant. They cannot wait to see what it contains, believing it will enable them to conquer the world. The cover comes off, the “priest” peers inside, and discovers the Ark contains nothing but sand. All that trouble for a pile of sand! But wait. The Ark began to radiate with the glow of the noonday sun and the priest exclaimed with amazement, “It’s beautiful!” The Nazis have a brief shining moment when they think maybe the Ark will win them the world after all. But moments later they are dead, and their grand plans for world domination are over. Their plans have come to nothing. We cannot afford to let that happen. We cannot afford to go through life asking God the kinds of questions that simply feed our curiosity. We may not always like asking tough questions because sometimes the answers sting. And knowing those answers implies a very real call to step up to the plate and make some positive, lasting changes in our lives. But if we will dare to know the answers to those tough questions and to apply them to our lives, we will know the depths of a relationship with God like never before. We will gain wisdom to improve the quality of our relationships with others. We will find out what is important and see things the way God sees them. And we will be inspired to accomplish the things we once thought impossible. 100 Tough Questions for God (if you dare to know the answers). I don’t know how much time is in the hourglass, but let’s make it count. What will you ask Him? |
