What to do with all the questions...

I ask a lot of questions. I absolutely love to learn new things and I have a high value for understanding things. I want to know where I’m going, why I’m there, what is the purpose behind it, etc. Some of my questions are audible, others are more internal, but trust me when I tell you that I ask a lot of questions. For anyone that is still questioning where this post is going... Just don’t worry about it. If you haven’t figured it out by this point, come back for my next post.

I’m in Paris, France right now and have been spending a lot of time in the museums. I enjoy art and culture, but the amount of time we’re given in each museum usually leaves me with a little bit of free time to talk to the Lord. I’ve found the quantity of constant questions in my head and heart have only been increasing recently. I’ve had to go back to the very roots of everything I’ve been standing on for my future and rediscover what I should be doing. And let me tell you… It’s quite a process.

But writing in the museum this afternoon and talking with the Lord, I came upon a new discovery. We “broke through a wall,” if you will. I’ve always known that my God is bigger than my questions. I know that He already has the answer to my questions. I know that in His timing, He will guide and direct me in the ways that I should go. I know that He will remain faithful to me through my questions and that He can handle all of my questions.

Today, however, I began to learn to entrust Him with my questions. He knows my questions. He cares about my questions. And thus, my questions are His questions. I don’t mean that He doesn’t already have the answers or that He doesn’t have everything figured out. What I mean is that my cares are His cares. The desires of my heart are what He desires for me. It’s beyond knowing that He’s bigger than my questions. It goes beyond asking Him my questions and patiently understanding His timing for the answers. It’s laying down my questions at His feet and standing confidently on the knowledge that we share the process.

Sometimes I think we get this idea in our heads that God stands somewhere at the end of this great maze and shouts out the answers to our lives as we need them. Turn left here. Walk straight there. Follow the curve around here. But I don’t believe this is the way He’s intended for us to live. I believe that He’s walking these questions through with me, not sitting at some great distance and simply shouting out the answers. I believe this is what He wants to do, and asks earnestly that we would let Him.

It can be scary to have questions. When I find myself in an unfamiliar place or a place that makes me uncomfortable I tend to draw into myself. You could call it a “turtle-effect” of sorts. Others of us find ourselves running to the nearest tangible distraction. Anyways, I believe the Lord doesn’t move himself off in the distance; we put Him there.

And while walking in the knowledge that you don’t have all the answers will take courage, I want you to know that it is worth it. The loneliness of the questions can only creep in when you choose to walk alone.

So I’ve decided to entrust my questions to the Lord, and invite Him to walk this through beside me. I know that some of the questions I’ve asked will be answered directly and in His timing. It’s bound to be that some of my questions won’t be answered because I’ve been unknowingly asking the wrong questions. I know that others still will lead me, at first, to more questions. But like I’ve mentioned before, this is a process. And that is okay.

So here's to not simply including Him in the conversation of our questions, but entrusting Him with our questions. Here's to not walking this through alone. And here's to the adventure that awaits us all!