"Questions" from Frederick Buechner's Wishful Thinking
On her deathbed, Gertrude Stein is said to have asked, "What is the answer?" Then, after a long silence, "What is the question?" Don't start looking in the Bible for the answers it gives. Start by listening to the questions it asks.
We are much involved, all of us, with questions about things that matter a good deal today but will be forgotten by this time tomorrow--the immediate wheres and whens and hows that face us daily at home and at work--but at the same time we tend to lose track of the questions about things that matter always, life-and-death questions about meaning, purpose, and value. To lose track of such deep questions as these is to risk losing track of who we really are in our own depths and where we are really going. There is perhaps no stronger reason for reading the Bible than that somewhere among all those India-paper pages there awaits each man and woman, whoever they are, the one question which (though for years they may have been pretending not to hear it) is the central question of his or her own life.
Here are a few of them:
-What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? (Matthew 16:26)
-Am I my brother's keeper? (Genesis 4:9)
-If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)
-What is truth (John 18:38)
-How can a man be born when he is old? (John 3:4)
-What does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:3)
-Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? (Psalm 139:7)
-Who is my neighbor? (Luke 10:29)
-What shall I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 10:25)
When you hear the question that is your question, then you have already begun to hear much. Whether you can accept the Bible's answer or not, you have reached the point where at least you can begin to hear it too.
So I guess this is part two, my note on personal/spiritual life. The theme of questions has been with me from one of the first weeks I was at APU. I was homesick and incredibly uncertain of what was going on in me here. I called a friend, and they told me that I should journal, even if it was just to write out the questions running through my head. They said once I could figure out the questions, I could begin finding the answers, and even to discover that some of the answers are not important.
In the wake of our third prospective student weekend, I am so refreshed and encouraged. I've been reminded of the incredible journey God brought me through to get here. I've seen how different I was a year ago, how much the people and the Spirit here have changed me.
I've found my questions in this place, questions like these:
What does it mean to be human?
How can we be humans like Christ was, the humans we were created to be?
What is it in the people we encounter that brings God great joy--the gift in them the He loves enough to die for?
How can we help bring forth those gifts that God loves?
I hope you find yours.
P.S. Since I'm slightly obsessed with Philippians lately, here are some of my favorite verses from it. And that just made me think of Carina, who is amazing and memorized the whole book! I miss you, and you should know how much you encourage me :)
"I thank God every time I remember you...being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus...And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God."--Philippians 1:3, 6, 9-11
"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."--Philippians 2:1-5
"I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained."--Philippians 3:10-16
"Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you...and my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus."--Philippians 4:9,19
