It’s an easy way for me to be. Inquisitive. Questioning. Sleuthing. Detective. Researcher. Any number of careers could have solved my quest. I stumbled into a technological career. Beginning with keypunch cards, I finally stepped back from it after working on web teams. Those mid-70s to the early part of the 21st Century were interesting times!
There was a time you could get your research done by calling the library research line. (Houston Public Library) Where does the “west” stop and “east” begin? Where does today become tomorrow? The international date line was often the common answer. If you know where the Prime Meridian is, then halfway around the world is the International Date Line. Yet, modern research says that the east meets the west at the Prime Meridian.
That opens a can of worms! Who’s right?
This points me down new roads of questioning. Why is it called Prime Meridian, and who decided where that was located? What is Greenwich Mean Time, and why is it where you find it?
Today, it’s easy to find the answer with a search engine. But can you trust the answers you find? There must be a valid source of information you trust to answer your questions. Otherwise, there are many falsehoods to muddy the waters.
Trusting Answers
Asking questions is good, but trusting the answers? That’s another thing. There must be a baseline of information that is foundational. Bedrock. Solid. No cracks or crumbling.
If science teaches us anything, we constantly learn and reset the baseline of what we believe or trust.
The concept of asking questions often means you must phrase your quest around certain knowledge, and that assumes you know something about the kind of answer you will get. Basic questions establish a baseline for deeper quests for knowledge.
One of my first processes of this question asking for deeper understanding was in the 8th Grade. My science teacher, Mr. Doolittle, assigned homework that had to be done on the roof of your house at night when the stars were out. We cut out a side of a box with no lid multiple times bigger than our head. Lay your head in the box and look up at the stars. Just think about what’s out there. How far are the stars? What’s past them? Where does Space End? Is there life out there?
Trial and error help us establish the baseline of what we currently understand. Life keeps growing, questions are always getting asked, and answers blossom as we absorb new lessons.
Not Afraid
I would hope that you are not afraid of questions or answers, but the reality is that we are often worried about something that comes out of the left field. What do we do now?
There are questions I don’t know the answer to, but equally, there are answers that I have no clue how to ask the right question so that understanding can happen.
I remember the first time I opened a classroom to a general question-and-answer session. It was a banking college class 40 years ago, and I knew I would not know all the answers. What do you do? “That’s a valid question. I don’t know the answer. Let me write it down, and I’ll research and let you know what I find out.” Or. “Good question! That’s next week’s homework. Research the issue and report back your findings.”
When Jesus was asked a point of law about someone caught in a sin, he knelt down and began writing in the sand. He could have gotten on the soapbox of law or the ranting diatribe of a person incited to condemn. No. He wrote in the sand.
Many wonder what he wrote.
John 7 gives the quiet answer.
He wrote.
When asked again, he continued writing. Finally, a small sentence responded:
So when they continued asking Him,
He raised Himself up and said to them,
“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”
(John 8:7 NKJV)
How we are asked and respond tells a deep tale about our comfort level with confrontation or our bank of knowledge. It should tell us how we react to stress!
Today, I want to continue to learn how to handle Q&A sessions better.
But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak,
they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
For by your words you will be justified,
and by your words you will be condemned.”
(Matthew 12:36-37 NKJV)