Questions, questions, questions. As Dr. Reynolds frequently reminded us at Wheatstone, it isn't finding the answers to them that's important, but the process that we use to work through our questions, which often leads us to more and bette questions. I've had a lot of questions lately, some of them good, and some less so. I've been learning though that not knowing the answers isn't necessarily a bad thing. Too often we want the answers to our questions, and we want them now. If we have a question and we don't know the answer, we take that to mean that we aren't intelligent, that something is lacking in us or in our beliefs because we can't answer the questions.
The true purpose of education, I think, is not to hand us the answers or give us a once size fits all formula for finding the answer to any question that may come our way. Rather, a good education will teach us to ask good questions, to explore these questions and think about the answers, and then to come up with more questions. Learning the answers isn't the most important thing, but learning how to go about finding an answer is. Torrey is one thing that I have found to be immensely helpful in teaching me how to deal with questions. If you can learn not to become frustrated when a question doesn't get answered by the end of class, to be willing to take a question down whatever path it may lead you, to see that not all questions are good questions and that it is as important to ask the right questions as it is to get the right answer, than you will be well on your way to being a well-educated person.
And so, some questions that I've been thinking about lately...
1) What is love? How do we love someone truly? What do you do when two different loves seem to come in conflict with each other? Do we love God in the same way we love others? Is there a right way and a wrong way to love someone? What does love look like?
2) What sort of power do words have? How does what we say affect others? Can our words have the power to create, or can only God's words create? What do words really mean?
3) How does one fully integrate head, hands, and heart? What does the well-ordered soul look like? How do you live the good life and pursue goodness truth and beauty without focusing only on yourself?
Once, it would have bothered me that I don't have the answers to these questions. But now, I'm learning to ask good questions without fear, to seek truth no matter how elusive it is, and to accept the fact that I will never have all the answers without ceasing to search for the answers.
Under the mercy,
Elizabeth
1 comment:
All three of those questions are ones that will take a lifetime to even attempt to answer, and once you have thought you have answered them, only more questions will come up. This is not meant to discourage you, but to encourage you. For who was it that said that, "The journey is more important than the destination"? He was right. So search, doubt, believe, and never, ever, stop questioning. Questions are the lifeblood of humans; as they are the most curious race. We thrive off of questions. For without questions, would there be any answers?
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