Did God really say?

I have always LOVED asking questions! In school, only very specific and important questions were ‘allowed’, that too only after class. But in college, I met the most amazing professors who enjoyed listening to my questions as much as I enjoyed asking them. But they too had to work within time constraints and so they taught me how to ask questions that actually got me somewhere I wanted to go. At work, certain politically correct questions were encouraged but no one truly embraced the joy of asking questions that really mattered if it came at a cost to one’s ego or belief system. I had such a passion for asking questions, that after my wedding, my bridesmaid told me she thought I was going to raise my hand and ask a question in the middle of the priest’s sermon on our wedding day! And I just might have too!

 

It was later with a certain group of people who really earned my trust, that I could open up and ask the questions that could change my life for the better. And since then, I have heard so many people echo these same questions, albeit in different words and intonations. At some level, I think these questions beat in the hearts of all humankind but we haven’t really gotten around to giving ourselves permission to ask them aloud.

 

So here are some of my favourite life-changing questions:

1. Does God really exist? (or is this some fantasy humans created to pacify themselves?)

2. If God does exist, then did He introduce Himself to humanity? How does God describe Himself and reveal Himself? (because there are so many contradictory perceptions of God)

3. Is Jesus God? Is Jesus a god- one of many? Or God God: capital G with the assumption being there is only one God?

Once I had found the answers to these questions, they totally upset my life. I realized that I had a choice to make. Either I keep my life the way I liked it then and ignore the implications of the answers I had found OR I had to allow the answers I had found on my own quest to change my life: even if I really liked my life the way it was. There didn’t seem to me, any middle option possible because I really couldn’t live peacefully believing one thing and living another way.

And then I had to ask myself another series of questions that really forced me to take a good, hard look at my life and embrace the radical change as it was happening:

1. Does Jesus really care about teeny meeny little me on this planet brimming with far more important and far more needy people?

2. Does Jesus have a vision, a dream, a clear picture of what kind of life would be best for me?

3. Did Jesus really say there is such a thing as sin? Does He really have a list of things He would want to me to do and a list to avoid?

4. Did Jesus really die for ME? What has His death so long ago got to do me?

5. Do I really want to allow Jesus to disrupt the life I had willfully created for myself? Can I trust Him enough to allow for changes and outcomes that are painful instead of pleasant?

6. What is it that I really believe about Jesus? Do I believe everything that He has told His disciples about Himself? Do I even want to examine each of those revelations and test my existing belief system? Is it going to be painful to realize I have been ignorant or misinformed for a lot of my life?

7. What has all this got to do with my everyday life and choices?

8. What is the cost I will have to pay for changing my beliefs and therefore my life? Physically, mentally, emotionally: what is following Jesus going to demand from me?

9. What is my hope for my own life?

10. What is the legacy I want to leave behind before I die, knowing that I probably won’t know when or how I am going to die?

11. Will my life matter? To whom and why?

 

Of all the people I’ve posed my many questions to, only One has not backed off in some way from the torrent of curiosity and exploration.

 

He is Jesus Himself.

Jesus can handle my most absurd and offensive questions.

Jesus knows the answers to all my whens and whys and what nows.

Jesus cares so very deeply and personally for me that He actually makes the time to answer my questions in ways that satisfy the deepest yearnings of my own, very unique soul.

 

And so, I invite you, dear patient reader, to burst forth with great confidence in asking Jesus all your very personal, unique, difficult questions too.

 

There is ultimately only one way to know what God really thinks and that is ask Him and be open to receive His answer.

 

Happy seeking!

 

P.S: If you feel like, please do leave your own questions in the comments under this blogpost for others to consider.