I like to ask annoying questions

I like questions. Hang around me much at all and I will begin asking you questions. You know, there are the normal things to ask, Where are you from? What do you do for fun? Who are your parents? What is a normal Christmas dinner at your house? Are you married yet? I believe that people assume to much about each other. We assume that if go to the same church we have identical political ideas. We assume that we like the same foods. We assume that all of our friends like the same movies, the same books, the same TV shows, and the same sports. But that is not really true. I think the best way to get to know someone is to ask questions, lots of questions. 

Some of my favorite questions only come after I have known someone for a while. These are annoying questions. Questions that get into your business. Questions that pry. Questions that are disquieting, disturbing, that force you to think, that call into question your assumptions.

I also believe most of us don't know ourselves very well. We may know what we like, but we don't know why we like those things. We may know what we believe, but we have never really thought through our beliefs, we just accept them as normal. Often I've found that lots of folks hold inconsistent beliefs and practices. 

In her book Big Questions Worthy Dreams Sharon Deloz Parks suggests that campus ministers should be "keepers of the questions." Too often ministers (and Christians in general) are primarily givers of answers, pat answers, answers that often do not really answer the question asked, or, worse, avoid the question all together. A skill I have learned (and am still learning when asking myself questions) is to let the question hang. Sometimes we are too quick to answer. Sometimes what we need to do is to learn to live with the question. Sometimes what we need is the struggle that the question requires. Sometimes what we need is just to acknowledge that there is a question for which we do not know the answer, for which there may not be an answer, or for which an answer may not be needed. 

Sometimes all that is needed is the question. 

Jesus liked questions too. He asked them a lot. When he was asked a question he often replied with a question of his own. And how annoying is that? Really!

• Sometimes Jesus' questions demanded answers. ("Who do you say that I am?" Mark 8:29. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" Mark 10:38)
• Sometimes his questions invited stories. ("What can we say the kingdom of God is like?" Mark 4:30. "Will you give me a drink?" John 4:7)
• Sometimes his questions seemed rather silly. ("Who are my mother and my brothers?" Mark 3:33. "Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed?" Mark 4:21. At a child's wake, "Why all this commotion and wailing?" Mark 5:39)
• Sometimes Jesus' questions demanded people to take ownership of actions, attitudes, or beliefs. ("Who touched me?" Mark 5:30-31. "Do you want to get well?" John 5:6. "Do you believe this?" John 11:26)
• Sometimes Jesus just let the question hang. ("Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?" John 7:19)
• Sometimes Jesus' questions were like a slap in the face. ("Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" Mark 4:40. "Are you dull [or stupid]?" Mark 7:17. "Are you not in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God?" Mark 12:24)
• Sometimes Jesus preached a sermon with one question. ("Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" John 8:10)

I like questions. I ask them a lot. Come on by the office sometime or let's grab some coffee. I will annoy you with some queries. Perhaps you will annoy me with some questions of your own. I'd like that. A lot.

• Why? 
• Who? 
• Where? 
• When? 
• Who says? 
• How do you know? 
• What if that is not true? 
• What is truth?
• How do you judge between two or more seemingly right answers?
• What would be different if...? 
• Is there another possible way to look at your situation?
• What might someone else do if faced with this dilemma?
• If you could change one thing about ___ what would it be and why? 
• What are you going to do with your life? 
• If you have no clue what you want to major in, why not take a semester or year off to do something completely different to figure it out?
• Why is that your major? 
• Why not do missions this summer? 
• Why not study abroad?
• Who are you? 
• If you could swap places with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
• What's something about yourself that you have never told anyone? 
• What are you most afraid of? 
• What was the happiest moment of your life? 
• What's your biggest dream? 
• If you could do anything and money, time, and ability were not in the way, what would you do? 
• Is there a story behind that statement?
• Why do you think that? 
• Where did you learn that?