Questions that Transform Us (Walking and Talking Spirituality #19)

Have you ever been asked a spiritually transformative question?

What were key questions that have shaped your journey of life?

Here are some of mine:

Rev Paul George asked my 17 or 18 year old self (1986 or 1987):

Have you ever considered the ministry?

Alex McManus challenged me when I was a young professor in
2005:

What business do you have teaching in a seminary if you’ve
never planted a church?

A few years ago, my daughter asked me:

Dad, why do you work so much?

The questions we ask ourselves play a determining factor
in our growth.

Are you open or closed to “hard” questions? 

Start your morning with some empowering questions:

For what am I grateful?

What is really bothering me?

What would make today great?

End your day with: What went really well today?

Be mindful of the questions that empower you and
questions that disempower you.

What’s on your mind today? What are some of the
best questions you’ve been asked or that you ask yourself?

#spirituality #questionsthattransform #questions #growth
#change #transformation #spiritualformation #spiritualgrowth 

Growth Through Questions (Conversations with Scripture)

“The quality of your life is the quality of your questions.” -- Anthony Robbins

The courage to ask questions is the pathway to deep insight and growth. Children instinctively understand this. One of the first signs of intellectual development in a toddler is when she begins to question her surroundings. “What is that, daddy?” is the easy question for a parent, but the more difficult “Why?” is never far behind.

A series of maxims greeted visitors to the ancient Delphic oracle in Greece. The most famous reads, “Know yourself.” This is an exhortation to shift from the external to the internal. To grow we must move beyond the expectations and explanations of others. We must engage in a search for truth driven by a thirst from within rather than from a desire for conformity to externals or approval from others.

The harder questions begin when we ponder our feelings and thoughts. What am I feeling? What am I thinking about right now? How can I quiet my racing mind? Will the dull ache that I feel inside ever go away? When we ask such questions, we become observers of our lives. We are no longer mere participants along for the ride.

Most of us gain a certain level of mastery of our external world as we grow. We learn to drive. We earn diplomas and degrees. We start careers. We marry and begin to raise families. We are able to navigate career and culture easily. We are comfortable in our spiritual lives. In essence, we become competent at the givens and whats of life.

But at some point, we hit a wall and realize that we’ve lost the plot. For many of us it takes a crisis moment: poor health, the death of a loved one, the loss of a relationship, a financial crisis, or disillusionment with our faith. These are times when we long for meaning and fulfillment over easy answers and the typical road maps for life and faith. At such times, we may turn to Scripture afresh.

People often describe the Bible as an answer book. This is certainly true, but we must take care not to reduce it to an answer book such as one we’d find in the back of a high school math text. As we live, we discover that life is messier and blurrier than a straightforward math equation. Rarely is the answer we seek simply the solution 2 + 2 = 4. When we face complexity, questions tend to be more helpful than simple answers.

In fact, Scripture is full of questions. Often these questions take us further down the rabbit hole than any answer would.

Here are some examples:

The serpent asks Eve and Adam, “Did God really say…? (Gen 3:1).

God asks the first humans, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9).

Cain asks God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9).

Moses asks God, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring out the Israelites?” (Exod 3:11) and “What is your name?” (3:13).

The psalmist asks, “My god, my god, why have you forsaken me? (Ps 22:1).

God asks Jonah, “Is your anger a good thing?” (Jonah 4:4).

A lawyer asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29).

The Philippians jailer asks Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).

In each case, the careful reader gains insight and wisdom by reflecting on the question and then reading to see if and how answers emerge through textual conversation. These Scriptural examples suggest that questions are part of an authentic relationship with God. God does not demand that seekers become unthinking “yes men” or “yes women.” There is a give and take to faith. God desires to ask us penetrating questions to aid us in transformation, but we also are free to challenge God and ask questions of our own.

In the end, reading Scripture is about asking questions. Our questions serve to open our hearts and minds to the questions that the Bible desires to ask each of us. Any question may be brought to the text, but ultimately the Bible desires to confront us with the reality of God’s claims on our lives. It intends to raise questions for us to ponder. 

Here are some that I’ve sensed when I’ve spent time in the Scriptures:

Do I trust that God has my best interests at heart?

How does the Bible invite me to live differently than I currently am?

What kind of person do I need to become to live out the truth I am reading?

As you open the Scriptures with new questions, try using this prayer from the early Church leader Origen (c. 185–c. 254):
Lord, inspire us to read your Scriptures and meditate upon them day and night. We beg you to give us real understanding of what we need, that we in turn may put its precepts into practice. Yet we know that understanding and good intentions are worthless, unless rooted in your graceful love. So we ask that the words of Scripture may also be not just signs on a page, but channels of grace into our hearts. Amen.

© 2016 Brian D. Russell

Key Questions to Ponder When Interpreting a Biblical Text

In the previous post: Reading Scripture Wisely and Well, I covered steps for analyzing a text carefully through a close reading. Here are a set of questions that can help you in the process:

1) Have I prayed for the Spirit’s guidance and direction? Ask God to astonish you with the text?

2) Do I understand the geographical and /or cultural references in this passage?

3) How does our text function within the wider argument in the book? What's going on in the context? How does this text fit into what comes before it and after it?

4) What are the key words and phrases in the text? How are these words and phrases used elsewhere by our author? 

5) If I am working on a New Testament text: What Old Testament texts are alluded to or quoted? How does the OT passage illuminate the meaning of the text I am interpreting? For OT texts: Are there quotations or allusions to other texts in the OT? If so, how do the texts illuminate one another? Is there a NT appropriation of my text? How does the NT author understand the OT text?

6) How is my passage structured? How does the structure of the passage contribute to its meaning? Does the passage flow logically? How does the story flow spacialy? How do the characters function within the story?

7) For those with facility in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek: What nuances are present in the syntax and the word order of the original language that are ambiguous or not explicit in the modern translations? Pay particular attention to verbal aspect and force of prepositions. 

8) What are the major interpretive issues present in this text? How are these resolved in the major English translations?

9) What are the possible ways that we may misread the text based on the English text?

10) What is the genre of my text (narrative, parable, discursive, prophetic, apocalyptic)? How does the genre affect my understanding of the passage?

11) What does this text assume to be true? How do these assumptions affect our reading of the text?
   
12) What elements in the text may be offensive in our contemporary context? What issues raised will be difficult for insiders? What issues in the text will be difficult for outsiders? What are the obvious objections that one could raise to the claims of the text? In what ways does the text answer these objections?

Interested in a bible study resource that builds on these sorts of questions and seeks to guide its users to read the Bible carefully while also emphasizing mission, community, and holiness? Check out my book and dvd study Invitation. It is available through Seedbed. You can see a sample and media interviews here.

© 2015 Brian D. Russell