The Power of Questions

 


The Power of Questions

 

The power of questions is undeniable. Who do men say that I am? What manner of Man is this? Who shall I send? Or this one: What church should I join?                                  

 

The power of questions is formidable A question can destroy as a demolition ball, ruthlessly swinging back and forth and damaging everything in its path. But questions also create. They create destinies, identities, lives. They set trajectories, unite communities, create meaning and purpose. Questions fuel the furnace of inquisitive minds and transform the very world we live in.  Without a doubt, questions are powerful!

 

It’s questions, and not assertions of the truths we already know that have turned Columbus’ Terra Incognita into our own backyard. It isn’t the I-already-know-it-alls, but perhaps-I-don’ts that account for our growth and development. 

 

When we stop asking questions and seeking for more truth, like patients on life support, entrusted into the hands of others, we concede to spiritual euthanasia and watch our spirits flat line. This quote from Elder Faust captures this notion:

 

Brothers and sisters, as good as our previous experience may be, if we stop asking questions, stop thinking, stop pondering, we can thwart the revelations of the Spirit. Remember, it was the questions young Joseph asked that opened the door for the restoration of all things. We can block the growth and knowledge our Heavenly Father intends for us. How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?”[1]

 

Standing at the iron gate we feel safe and fully protected from having to continually learn and relearn what we know to be true. And in the process, we inadvertently put ourselves behind the iron bars of ‘having enough’ (2 Nephi 28:29).

Choosing not to question is hardly an act of faith. Faith requires courage, while doing as you are told does not. When we choose to accept what others tell us “on faith” we are entrusting our personal salvation and pursuit of intelligence into the hands of others. Now, it is up to them what we know and how much of it. And while we know, that the more intelligence we gain in this life the better our condition in the next, we seem reluctant to be independent in its pursuit.

 

Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith”. The phrase is catchy, but what does it mean, really?

 

“Doubting your faith” suggests undermining the truths we already have, which is different from having an open mind and “seeking for further light and knowledge”. Without realizing it, by trying to keep ourselves spiritually safe, we shut the door on the very thing we covenanted to be open to.

 

Afraid to lose the knowledge we have, we squeeze our poor bird in the hand nearly to death, refusing to even consider the possibility of two in a bush.

Terrified to ask questions we put ourselves in the crawl space of Fear and ironically put in jeopardy the very Faith we were hoping to protect, since the two, Faith and Fear, like water and oil, do not mix.  

 

 

Our perception of doubt is comparable to that of the Black Plague which seems deadly to all things spiritual. We are mortified that somehow it will blow out the candle of our spiritual existence and leave us in the dust of ashes with no knowledge of anything veritable. To us doubt and desolation have become synonymous. 

 

 

But asking questions doesn’t render us devoid of everything we ever knew to be true. Doubt isn’t a plank we have been sentenced to walk, but a springboard allowing us to dive deeper spiritually.  Doubt is not an obscure back exit we take to abandon all of the spiritual wealth accumulated over our lifetime, but the front porch of knowledge, where we get to be the welcoming hosts. Will we unlock the door or pretend we are not home? 

 

Like passengers getting on the cruise ship of the church, we do not dare doubt that we are going to our desired destination. We go along without pulling out the doctrinal map for fear of finding out that for the longest time the trajectory of our vessel has been ever so imperceptibly off the divinely intended course.  And as optimistic passengers of Titanic we ‘stay in the boat” certain that ‘this boat cannot sink’…

 

Asking questions and doubting our understanding and perceptions has everything to do with receiving answers. As well as obtaining more...

May we always have the audacity to question and ask.  For how else can we receive?  And,  will we ever have too much? I doubt it...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



[1] James E. Faust, “The Truth Shall Make You Free,” Ensign, September 1998

 


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