Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Questions Anyone?

One more day until the end of 2015. 
Time to look back over the year, or in my case, over the past ten years. 

I have been reading through a journal that has taken me ten years to fill. Obviously I don't write often. I'm down to the last pages and will retire it tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be more consistent in writing in my next journal.

One entry a few years ago had to do with questions ...
questions about what I believe ... spiritually. 

I had copied a number of meaningful quotes about questioning that made sense to me.

"Questions are not scary. What is scary is when people don't have any. What is tragic is faith that has no room for them."

"Questions, no matter how shocking or blasphemous or arrogant or ignorant or raw, are rooted in humility. A humility that understands that I am not God. And there is more to know."

"Questions bring freedom. Freedom that I don't have to be God and I don't have to pretend that I have it all figured out. I can let God be God!" 

"Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God. Not belligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our Maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions arising out of the awe that comes from engaging the living God."

~Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis 


In the beginning was the Word......
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
This image taken from cillelitchfield.com
A question that bothered me concerns this verse about the Word.

I've heard for decades that Jesus was at the beginning of the world. We learn that from the verses above.

I struggled with the idea of Jesus floating around at the beginning of the world. Yes, I realize that's a really stupid thought, but as an artist, I am a very visual person. I needed to know what the Word was before it was enfleshed. I questioned. Read various translations. I questioned. I investigated the Hebrew meaning in Strongs Concordance. I continued to question. I dragged out the dictionary, and through all of that, I believe the Holy Spirit gave me quite a beautiful answer that only He knows would satisfy me. 

Now, as I read the beginning of the book of John, I smile. It all makes sense to me.

What are you questioning? 
It's okay. 
It makes God smile knowing that you care.