If not 'Why?' Then...What?

 The blog I wrote a few days ago was focused mostly on the question: Why? And my thoughts keep circling back to it...there's more where those came from (are you surprised?!)

Even if it is an often pointless question, it is still very natural to ask it, and the asking usually stems from a place of distress, pain or anger. 

Our minds may tend towards analyzing and questioning 'why' but our souls cry out for more than a response to this one question. 

The word 'emotion' is at the forefront of this discussion - it seems it isn't merely a neutral curiosity that brings up the question 'why?', but rather the stirrings of the heart, the dissatisfied soul, the unresolved longings that bring me to a place of 'why?' E-motion is simply that - something within us that beckons movement, change or drives us somewhere - even if the 'where' is unknown. Feelings are largely what drive everything, which is why the word 'motion' is part of the word 'emotion'. 

I can hear your rebuttal already: "Emotions/feelings don't drive everything!! Our wills, our choices, our intellects, data gathering, judicious decision-making, emotively neutral analysis - these are what drive everything!" Fair enough. We can disagree here. You can live in that la-la-land of what I consider hopeful un-reality. If you'd like to actually observe life as it really moves and goes, I think you'll find that emotion is hugely involved, even with a dose of heady analysis here and there. (Do I need to point out the first half of the word 'analysis'?! I won't, I think it's already clear :D)

So, back to the question, 'Why?' - If 'why?' isn't the most helpful question...what are other good questions to ask?

I have shifted from thinking of life as a bunch of questions and answers, which was largely my outlook in the first few decades, and was productive in expanding my intellect (so of course it served a purpose!), to a bunch of experiences lived or denied. Perhaps life doesn't consist so much of seeking and finding answers, as much as in welcoming or denying experience. We can spend our entire lives picking apart theology, philosophy, history, data, information - processing every new and old idea or concept and live in our heads until the day we die. And this would actually be preferable for some (like me!). But when I read what Paul writes in Ephesians, that Christ dwells in my heart through faith, or when he says elsewhere to 'love one another deeply, from the heart,' or when my attention is on all the emotive aspects of Scripture, I must reckon with the fact that God's call on my life goes beyond merely processing information and coming to correct conclusions about all-the-right-things-to-believe-and-right-ways-to-think-about-every-issue.  

If I camp out on 'why?' I must admit that my soul cries out for answers that are not satisfied by explanation. 

For help with understanding inner emotive experience, I usually turn to the Psalms. It is the Biblical emotional roller-coaster guide to what-it-is-like-to-be-human.

Look at Psalm 2 - David asks a 'why?' question: 'Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain!?' Obviously he's not asking, 'Please explain to me the motivations behind nations being in uproar.'

Look at Psalm 13 - David asks, 'How long, O Lord!?' This is similar to a 'why?' question. It's not looking for a date and time, though that might be helpful if God just answered and said, 'By the year 2578 we'll have made progress on dealing with injustice!' At least then we'd know how long we'd have to endure. But of course, the date/time stamp is not what David is asking for. He is crying out from a place of suffering.

In 2 Kings 2, Elisha is witnessing his mentor and closest prophet-companion being taken into heaven. 

It says: "Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked."

Did you catch that? He didn't ask, 'Why did God take Elijah from me!?' He asked, 'Where is the God of Elijah?' It is an entirely different question.

I wonder if life doesn't actually consist of asking better questions - questions that get to the heart of things. If the question isn't 'why?' perhaps it is 'Where?' 

Where is God in this moment?

Where is He taking me?

Where is He leading me?

What is He doing in me?

Where can I find Him?

In Luke Jesus famously tells us to 'Ask and it will be given to you, Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.' (Luke 11, somewhere). Of course God welcomes our 'why?' questions, as He welcomes all the others. But do you notice what it actually says there? It doesn't say, 'Ask and you'll get the answer you're hoping for.' Or, 'Ask and I'll give you a full explanation.' Asking is linked to receiving, seeking is linked to finding and knocking is linked to open doors. These are relational concepts. We must receive from SOMEONE.  We must find the One we seek, and we must have a door opened to us by the One on the other side.

The questions that bear fruit in our lives are full of hungering searching for a deeper connection, communion and union with this mysterious One we call God. 

He both hides and reveals, shows up and seems absent. He may confuse, confound, and surprise us. His faithfulness is predictable (unfailing!). His love is unending. His presence is granted to us who know Him.

All questions belong - even the why? questions, the frustrating questions, the painful, doubting, cynical, wounding questions. 

They belong when we are turning them to the God we seek - Who may seem distant, Who may seem to have forgotten 'the plan' (Like, 'Here's the plan I was hoping you would rubber-stamp, God! Why aren't you getting on board with it!!?).  

I'm not writing this as some kind of theological treatise. 

I'm writing this in hopes that your questions will find a landing place - in the loving hands of the One Who knows the end from the beginning, Who understands mysteries beyond our ability to comprehend, and Who invites us to open our hungering souls to Him.

For He has said, 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'

May you seek, and find. Ask and receive. Knock and find the open welcome of a Father's love.