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An Invitation to Question

Q & A

Almost daily at my university I faced claims by my professors and peers — things like, "The government shouldn't be able to tell a woman she can't get an abortion — it's her body!" or, "Christians have no logical evidence to show that God exists; it's just blind faith," or, "If God is so loving, why do innocent people die?"

I knew the answers — or at least beginnings of answers — to all those questions. I even knew it was my duty to be ready with an answer and "correctly handle the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15, NIV) in those situations. But I never responded, never stood up in defense.

I would maybe pray for those asking the questions, but I never dared to answer. I wrote off their questions by telling myself, "Well, I'm not a philosophy major, and I don't like confrontation. I would just do more harm than good if I tried to take on their accusations." It's true — I'm not a philosophy major, and I don't like confrontation. But those were lame excuses, masking my fears.

It took this past summer at the Focus on the Family Institute to rip the mask off my fear and present it before the spotlight of God's truth, fully exposed.

A Fear Revealed

I found it really wasn't the sophisticated arguments or even the threat of confrontation that scared me away from answering questions about my faith. I was afraid that my questioners would prove me wrong. What if they back you into a corner you can't explain your way out of? my mind whispered. What if they prove God to be illogical, impossible, unexplainable, and just plain false?

Those unspoken questions sure made it convenient for me to hide — that is, until my experience at the Institute threw me up against the wall and shined a spotlight on my fear. I found myself asking, Why would you believe in and follow a God who could be blown away by the slightest philosophical breeze?

It was a good question: why would I? I regularly listened to sermons and CDs, read the Bible, and prayed to a God who I believed was sovereign, loving, just, omnipresent, and the answer to every question. I had great faith — but only in private, or when surrounded by those who would affirm my beliefs without question.

But God isn't meant to be my own private God. His mystery invites questioning. And if He truly is who I believe He is when nobody's looking, He will still be our Great God when everybody's looking.

Ask a Question, Any Question …

My time this summer at the Institute didn't make me confrontational, nor did it make me especially philosophical. But it did make me unafraid to question, and unafraid to journey with others who are doing the same. I no longer fear that God might not measure up to even our toughest questions. Instead, I ask my questions and receive them gladly from others, confident that God will show up and reveal to us that He really is who He says He is.