The Art of Questioning

From Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis...

"...A question by its very nature acknowledges that the person asking the question does not have all of the answers.  And because the person does not have all of the answers, they are looking outside of themselves for answers.  

Questions bring freedom.  Freedom that I don't have to be God and I don't have to pretend that I have it all figured out.  I can let God be God.  

In the book of Genesis, God tells Abraham what He is going to do with Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham fires back, "Will not the Ruler of the earth do right?"

Abraham thinks that God is in the wrong and the proposed action is not in line with who God is, and Abraham questions Him about it.  Actually, they get into a sort of bargaining discussion in which Abraham doesn't let up.  He keeps questioning God.  And God not only doesn't get angry, but He seems to engage Abraham all the more.  

Maybe that is who God is looking for - people who don't just sit there and mindlessly accept whatever comes their way...

Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God.  Not belligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions, arising out of the awe that comes from engaging the living God...

The great Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, "I did not ask for success, I asked for wonder."