As a professor, I learned that questions are much more powerful than statements. A good question can stir the imagination from a slumbering fog. It can also feed a revolution, change a conscience, and begin deep friendships. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for statements. But questions can influence whole countries or worlds as well as an individual heart. Have you encountered a question that nagged at you and over time, you found yourself changed because of that question biting at your heels?
There is one question that inevitably surfaces for me: Is this all there is? It is like the curtain being pulled back exposing the little man proclaiming he is the great and powerful Oz. Have you ever found that to be the case for you? You invested so much work and time at something only to have this question shift your gaze to see beyond the surface.
This question has been friend and foe to me over the years. It is one of those dangerous questions because it is risky. What if this really is all there is to me? It has been a foe when I didn’t want to see the curtain hiding things. It has been a friend when I have felt brave in the middle of my fear to begin taking peeks.
I avoid that question when I want to stay comfortable in my own world and stay focused on others. I find if I give that question air, it will inevitably lead to discomfort and hard work. That work and discomfort usually leads me to a mirror inside my soul that instigates more questions. I begin to interrogate myself…asking more questions which means more wincing and pain but these questions also bring breath and relief to my being as I catch glimpses of the expanse from which I was made before parts of me became fenced in, pinned down, and forgotten.
Don’t be afraid to be a question asker! But if there is a question you want to ask of yourself but are not ready, be patient and take care of yourself. The Holy Spirit is a good question keeper for just the right time.
You are more than you know and the One who is love will help you find your expanses.
—Dianne