We finished our short study on the book of Jonah this past Sunday and I loved it! The story has a way of getting into your heart and mind and not letting go. Once you experience Jonah's self-righteousness and God's grace you can't undo the effect in your life.
The climax of the book, chapter 4, pulls all the threads of the book together into a powerful lesson from God to Jonah and us. However, as you look at the chapter, you realize that God doesn't preach a sermon to Jonah to get his message across. Instead, he asks three questions! That's it. God asks Jonah the same question in verses 4 & 9 and then the book ends with an extended question in verses 10-11. Why end the book with a question like this? It leaves so many loose ends just hanging out there. What happened to Jonah? What happened to Nineveh? Did Jonah travel back to Israel? Did God's lesson change him?
Thoughts like these are entirely the point. We are meant to see Jonah's anger at God's grace and evaluate if we have the same reaction. Questions are powerful.
I recently read a book entirely on asking questions called The Art of Asking Better Questions. It's written by a Christian who wants us to learn the value of questions for life, ministry, and in our relationship with God.
In the book, the author J.R. Briggs, has an entire chapter on the questions Jesus asked during his earthly ministry. I was a little surprised to learn that in the Gospels Jesus asked at least 300 questions. He's constantly responding to questions with questions and this isn't because He's evasive! Questions take relationships to a new level. They engage our minds in deeper ways and they stimulate thought and ideas.
If God considers it valuable to ask Jonah questions and Jesus's ministry life was filled with constant question asking, why don't more of us intentional grow in the art of asking good questions of each other and ourselves?
While there are a host of reasons for my own personal lack of intentionality in asking good questions of others, I think two rise to the top of the list: lack of curiosity and just plain laziness. It may not seem like that big of a deal to lack curiosity, but most of the time it's due to a relentless self-centeredness in my heart. I'm not curious about others because I'm so focused on self that I don't have time to wonder about that other person. Briggs says the key to asking better questions and deepening relationships is curiosity. "If you want to ask better questions, you have to begin with genuine interest in others."
But question asking is hard. My brain wants to operate on auto-pilot most of the time and it takes a lot of mental energy to actively engage a person with curious questions. This is the laziness road block.
Despite these two hindrances, and a host of others, genuine love for people demands that we learn to actively engage others with curious and thoughtful questions. People are a gift from God and loving them calls for us to develop this skill. Briggs ends the book like this:
"Life is better because of questions. They are some of the most valuable and easily accessible tools available to every one of us. When we make a commitment to learn to ask better questions, we experience better marriages and families, cultivate closer friendships, and deepen our faith. We have the opportunity to humanize our places of work, build stronger schools, and create more connected neighborhoods. Learn to see the world as a question mark, and the journey never ends. If the quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask God, yourself, and others, how then will you live into those questions?"
If you are interested in learning more about question asking, we will have several copies of Brigg's book available at the book shelf on Sunday morning.