If You Could Ask God a Question
2010 February 2
If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
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We had a great board meeting for the Kibo Group this past weekend in Ft. Worth. The group was started by the fifteen of us who climbed Kilimanjaro together in 1998, and it focuses on ministries to help East Africa. Eleven of the fifteen were able to make it, plus two more were Skyped in from Searcy, and one other from Rwanda.
When you get a chance, I’d love for you to check out some of the programs that Kibo supports like: Malo Ga Kujilana, the Mvule Project, the Water Source, and the Basoga Women’s Leadership.
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Why do good things happen to the New York Yankees?
Did you really, really tell your people to wipe out whole villages–men, women, children, animals and all?
Are you for real?
What is my problem?
Do I dare ask You, what’s with this whole scenario? What was it that brought about Your decision to make and do everything we see about us and then send Jesus to save us from ourselves? Why all that love???
Or maybe just,
Why so much for the Yankees and so little for San Diego’s Padres????
Why do some people come by belief so easily, so that every simplistic book in a Christian bookstore makes sense, so that you seem so loving and perfect, and so that every worship service is full of inspiration, while I can’t understand you, experience you, or confidently believe in you even though I’ve tried?
Please explain it
Today, it would be, “What purpose to chiggers and poison-ivy serve?” I could do without either.
Last week I was sitting in a coffee shop the other day when 2 young men (at least one of whom is a senior Bible major at ACU) walked up and asked me this very question explaining it was for a class project.
I thought a good long while about this because I have a slew of questions for God. When I finally answered it went something like this, “Right now in my life, I want to know why God created or allowed it to be a patriarchal society for as long as we’ve known.” Okay…not the most eloquent or well-worded of questions, but I have really been struggling with the way women are and have been viewed throughout time and that question was weighing especially heavily on my mind at the moment (and most other moments). Our interaction then ended with them rolling their eyes, (jokingly?) muttering something about me being a radical feminist , saying they didn’t want to talk about it, and walking away.
Now, I did not want or expect a conversation to take place after I said my question. Nor did I expect them to say, “Oooh! That was my question, too!” And, to be clear, I do not think they *intended* to hurt my feelings or be rude in their reaction.
But, to be honest, I am tired of excusing people because they weren’t *intending* to be rude on this subject. I hate that I am used to people making it clear that they don’t even want to think about this topic and literally (and figuratively) walking away from conversations. I am tired of giving a lot of thought to something, sharing something that is quite personal and very painful for me, and having people belittle me for it.
Next time I am asked that question I will most likely choose another response. As I said, I have many questions, and although most of them are not as important to me right now as the ones regarding equality of men and women, I will choose another simply to avoid this kind of reaction.
And, with that being said…whoever makes it to the end of this response…thank you for “listening”, and let’s *intentionally* be respectful of one another’s questions no matter how silly, random, misguided, brilliant, bad, or irrelevant we think they are.
Why bother?
Why did my son die before before he even had a chance to live?
I don’t get the whole natural disaster thing. How does that work?
I’m just now getting a chance to check in. Dear friends, thank you so much for these honest, searching questions. These are like the questions I now hear a lot in my work with Landon Saunders. Voicing our questions is vital, it seems to me.
Cannibalism, rape, torture, hell, child abuse, insanity, brain tumors, cancer, hurricanes, poverty, starvation–necessary trappings of a “perfect” plan created by an all-powerful, omnibenevolent being who could do absolutely anything he wanted? Seriously?
What can we do to get rid of Political Correctness?
Were Velociraptors vegetarian in the Garden of Eden?
When can we come see you?
Why did you create ME?
Oh, & I don’t mean “Mark Elrod” in the above question.
Laura – It is a good question worthy of a better response. Maybe another thread can address this question. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee we would arrive at the answer God would give!
Why is it so difficult for mankind to see beyond the sinful realities of this world that WE create, and abide in the joy of the glory of the awaiting “perfect” heaven that YOU created for us?
So…. cockroaches? Seriously?
From apologetics, what’s your fav?
Do we have to keep living with the hurt and atrocities? When are you coming back?
Why can’t I keep my mind focused on You for even the least little while, even when I really try?
When is Larry King *finally* going to retire so he can quit humiliating himself (in re: tonite’s “interview” of the church members of the group detained in Haiti for alleged child kidnapping)? qb
How does time work? Meaning, how is it that You ALWAYS existed w/o a beginning; w/o being created? And do You exist outside of time? If so, why were we created with a linear timeline?
(Sorry….I’ve still got ‘LOST’ on the brain!!!)
Did Adam have a bellybutton?
Why do I not do the things I know I should, and do the things I know I shouldn’t?
W.T.F?
Do you have a favorite secular band? Also: how necessary is free will? Surely there would be a better solution.
What is my purpose that I am supposed to fulfill?
How can I be more like you? To love like you and trust like you…
Where did you come from?
Do ghosts, spirits, or demons still roam the Earth or was that just during Jesus’s time?
Why are Christian’s so homophobic, when we are called to be lovers of everyone? God is love — to everyone.
What was going through Adam’s mind when you asked him to look for a wife among the animal kingdom?
(I’m hoping it wasn’t something like, “You know, that monkey is kinda cute.”)
First and foremost, God IS a Yankee fan….deal with it people!
What is ALL of this about?
Why did you bother making us if you knew how it would end up? why do you put people in our lives who hurt us or just walk in then right back out? Why is there suffering? earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, what’s the point? why does it seem some time that you do turn your back on us when we need you the most? Why me?
If you really loved Adam and Eve, and all of humanity that would come after, why did you even put the tree of life in the garden of eden?
Where did all the unicorns go? And are you a boxers or briefs man?
Why me Lord? What have I ever done to deserve even one of the pleasures I’ve known? Tell me Lord, what did I ever do that was worth loving you, or the kindness you’ve shown?
Why am I blessed with a healthy body, good family, etc when others are not as blessed and endure more hardships and suffering? What makes me so special?
Even the most learned Bible scholars disagree on what you mean in the scriptures, and after 2,000 years there is endless debate on what you mean. If following your word is important to our salvation, why didn’t you make it easy for us?
Why do you wreak havoc on wonderful people? And why is there nothing I can do to help them?
Why do you take young families members away from their families? Especially when they could have furthered your Kingdom in ways that no one else could?
And last but not least, why cancer?
Why don’t you intervene when tragedies occur? What is the purpose in allowing bad things to happen?
Obviously, most of the questions posed so far are based in doubt of god’s existence. Failure to admit as much to yourself is the ultimate lie. Bret’s truely genius comment reflects undeniable logic that gods are human inspired omnipotents designed to comfort our failure to understand and accept our finite existence. My agnosticism stands, as I am unafraid to say, "I don’t know".
Prophet: qb doesn’t know (in your self-evidently Enlightenment-framed sense), and qb’s not afraid to say it, either. Does your willingness to admit your ignorance make you a better person than lowly qb, who admits the same but chooses belief? Your post clearly implies that belief is just an hilarious exercise in denial and self-delusion.
Don’t be ‘fraid, hoss, lay it out there clearly. Are we believers a bunch of tragically simple idiots, or do you prefer to dance around it so as not to insult us? And if the latter, what moral code restrains you from insulting us, anyway?
Epistemologically,
qb
@qb: Hmmm… I thought my comments were quite explicit and did not leave room for postulation of meaning. If your defensive post percieves insult from my comment, then it is self-loathing that prevails, not the content.
Why would one “choose belief” when they claim agnosticism? Hedging a bet? After all, to err on the side of possible grace is better than erring on the side of possible disgrace. I understand this… it is actually logical. However, logic does not impress your god, I hear.
You say, “Your post clearly implies that belief is just an hilarious exercise in denial and self-delusion.” That is not true… I don’t find it humorous at all.
Epistemologically, indeed,
How can I find a way to make You a bigger part of my work, of having you work with me to accomplish my goal to make watches, of enviting You to be a more real part of my daily life? (By the way if any of you have thought on this, I would like to hear them)
Some of you guys seem to be fudging quite a bit on the “one question” part of this (: