Asking the Good Questions

"What message has God put on your heart to share?"

It was a good question posed on a blog I read this morning. And I have to admit, it startled me a bit.

I had been talking to Nathan about questions--the good kind--and how to ask them well. Because see, as an introvert, it's so easy for me to live in my head and to think I've "got it"--that I understand my life and the world around me.

The problem with that is that it's a perspective that can be so one-sided and two-dimensional. In fact it can become the road to living an out-right lie--a life that's simply not true; the sincerest kind of make-believe.

Good questions keep us in check with reality.

My pastor once said that healthy reflection is not about self-absorption, but aligning our lives with truth. Questions ask us to bring our perspective and our lives in line with God's leading.

So when I read this blog this morning, it felt piercing, like something that cut through the shit of self-justication, excuses, and hmms and haws, and simply asked, "What do you have to say?"

Not, "What do you think you SHOULD say?" Not, "What do you think other people NEED to hear?" Not, "What do other people EXPECT you to say?" 

Just, "What do you have to say?"

This is a good question for a writer. If you're not a God-believer, that's all you need to take away from this. When you believe in a personal God, the heat is on a bit, because it's like having to deal with a present or responsibility from someone, and you've really got to deal with it. But outside of that theology, most of us have a feeling or particular pressing that belongs to no one else. So just think about that.

Put this question on a post-it note and just stare at that today. Think through it, feel through it, wrestle with it on your own terms.

Because I guarantee what you have to say, what's on your heart to say, doesn't match up with those other three questions-- the shoulds, the expectations, the perceived needs you "think" you see.