Asking Questions

"There are years that ask questions, and years that answer." -Zora Neale Hurston

BOOM. That's it. If ever there was a quote that speaks to my soul as 2013 quickly comes to a close, this is it. My heart finds a few seconds of rest amongst the busy season in being understood like this.

Have you ever had a year or maybe even a season, no matter how long, that just kept picking at you? Everything that can go wrong does (plus more) and now you're all out of ideas for how to rebuild from ground zero? You're feeling so George Bailey that if one more thing goes wrong you're ready to leave Bedford Falls altogether?

Questions.

What about those moments lived in the visibly miraculous? You know the kind. The breakthrough you needed so desperately happened, you finally got some good news from the doctor, and God must be on your team today because Chick-fil-a was giving out free breakfast?

Answers. 

The important thing to remember here is that life is lived in the questions and answered in the split-seconds. Let's face it. Questions take a long time to ask, but they grow you. Answers are really great to hear, but how great are they if you haven't even fought the battle?

Let me put it this way. The incarnation of Christ (that is, God coming in the form of man) was and still is everything to the Christian testimony. As people celebrate this Christmas season, we are reminded of Jesus' birth, which is miraculous to say the least. In the same note, Easter calls begs us to remember His death on a cross and subsequent resurrection three days later. But what about the time in between? The love, revelation, persecution, sickness, heartache, and temptation. Don't you think life was asking Jesus some pretty serious questions when he was sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, about to be arrested and killed for His obedience. His victorious life lived in the questions is what makes Him relevant 2,000 years later. God could have saved us with a quick virgin birth, infant death, and resurrection that took away ninety-nine percent of the suffering Jesus endured throughout His life, but He didn't. He chose to send His only son to live a full thirty-three painful, love-filled, miraculous years because He was reaching out to us. The God of the universe touches us in the questions His Son endured; through Jesus.

What I mean to say is, life is hard and Jesus lived it. This year, God allowed things to happen in my own life to ask me questions about who He is and who I thought I was. As awful as it felt to walk through a season like that, I can now see the good in my suffering for Christ's sake in the lives that He touches through my testimony.

The Big Idea: Who will your questions reach out to in 2014?



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