Growth and Easy Answers

I long to give quick answers when group discussion births questions that I have wrestled with myself.  I want to interrupt, speak truth, and move on.  None of this dilly-dallying, let's get to the point and grow and push forward into the next thing.  In some cases I can probably answer more accurately, with scripture, than most folks in a group, simply because I've done my time on that particular issue, and have some conclusions that have been affirmed in me, in scripture and experience.  I have vision for conclusion, and so want to see it reached.

Aside from the arrogance clear in that thought process, the immediate provision of an answer holds two great faults.  First, it denies the community the opportunity to become the body of Christ to itself, and second because it removes the quickening presence of tension that drives much of our desire to pursue the Lord and His righteousness.  Thus, I am learning to not jump to share answers, but instead to press into questions.  Greenleaf talks about questions as the key to building corporate vision, and I think he's on to something.  Questions, the right ones, can best be used to build holy discomfort and spark true desire.

How often the Lord engages us with a question- Where are you? What are you doing here, Elijah? Can these bones live?  From whence came John's baptism?  Who do you say that I am?  Why do you persecute me, Saul?  Who is worthy to open the scroll?  These questions set our hearts on fire.  They reframe our thoughts, not on our experience but on the kingdom of God, with its own ethics and physics and wisdom.

Questions, by definition, lack resolution.  Our culture has trained us to reach the end as quickly and easily as possible.  Unanswered questions are bad, answers are good, all hail wikipedia.  Yet this focus on resolution denies the relational benefit of process.  Let me explain.

Think of someone lifting weights, repeating the same motion over and over.  The 'goal' is to lift the barbell from one position to another- yet the 'purpose' is not the newly-achieved height of the barbell, but what is gained in the process.  Similarly, the life of faith is not a matter of achieving ends or reaching certain points, but of relationship with the Lord.  Case in point: most evangelicals would say that eternal life is to get into heaven, but Jesus says that eternal life is to know the Father.  It is not the end result but the relationship that moves us towards the end upon which Jesus focusses.

So, I ask you the question- does the way you structure your church, your gathering, allow for relationship with the Father, or simply reaching conclusions?  Is it only about teaching truth, that people may accept and believe, or is it about engaging hearts with the heart beat of God, that they may, as Hosea writes, know and press on to know the Lord.  Know and press on to know, both.

Teaching is a massive tool in the belt of the church, absolutely.  Truth is not relative, but is universal, clearly.  But Jesus taught within experiences and often did not give the easy answers even when they existed.  He let questions sit, let theology jumble, let minds explode.  Because he was not as interested with His people assenting to doctrines as He was with nurturing His relationship with them, knowing that true relationship with the Father will produce true doctrine.

I am learning that the presence of vision does not require reaching the end, but pursuing it.  For, if faith is primarily discipleship, walking with the Lord and learning from His yoke, then it is not the conclusion that matures us, but the walking.

Or, to quote the ever-wise Ashley twins, half of the adventure is getting there.  You can thank my sisters for that one.