In Need Of Answers
These days it seems like everyone is seeking answers. Everywhere you turn there are those that are seeking solutions to some situation, problem or circumstance. I was thinking about this some and I decided to do a Google search of the phrase “seeking answers” just to see what came back. I too was seeking an answer about the kinds of things people were currently seeking answers for. Needless to say it was interesting to see the response to the search. Here are just some of the responses from the first page:
• Gary Coleman’s estranged parents are seeking answers in their son’s death.
• A news organization is seeking answers for the Thai victims families.
• Wall Street is seeking answers after the market’s wild bungee jump.
• There are people seeking answers over the BP oil spill.
• NPR is seeking answers in the midst of the maze of health studies.
There is not much doubt that there is an almost obsession to getting and finding answers. Some of the answers we seek are relatively simple. How is the quickest way to get from Point A to Point B? Other questions we seek answers for are more complex. What should I do with my life? But then there are answers that are extremely difficult and very much beyond complex. These are the answers to questions that have to do with morality and ethical issues, with what we believe and how we respond relationally to one another.
It’s interesting to me how we think we can come up with an answer for every question and a solution for every problem. Most often it is nothing more than an elaborate illusion where we even fool ourselves. How often I have seen myself and others make an answer true just because we're so uncomfortable about living in the space of not being quite sure. Most of us have not learned to live with the vulnerability of not having a definitive answer for everything about life.
The problem is that many do not realize that sometimes there are no answers but there is One who is the answer. The question is how comfortable can I be living in a place of uncertainty with the One who is certain?
More and more I have come to a place where I realize that life is less about right answers and more about the adventurous experience of walking daily with Him who is the answer. It seems to me that there is something deeply spiritual about that. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that some questions just don’t have answers, as much as we want them to. And if my faith is dependent on knowledge, I will either be seriously disappointed (and disillusioned) or forced to delude myself into thinking that I actually do have answers. But if my faith is dependent on experience (with Abba Father and with others), then I can suspend my need for knowledge and be fully present in today’s journey with Him and others.
It seems to me that this need to have, get or find answers is often rooted in either something unresolved in the past or in something perceived about the future. As a result most often we seek an answer to that question "Why?" It's a question we've all asked all too often. Why me? Why not me? Why them? Why didn't I win when I practiced so hard?
Again, sometimes, there is no answer. But here is what I’m thinking. What if it’s about the lessons we learn more than the answers we discover? In this journey of learning what it means to live loved it’s becoming very clear that there are so many places in my life, my heart, my mind and my thinking that, instead of looking for the answer, I’m discovering what it means to relax in order that I might discover the lessons. You see I believe that the wisdom that can be gained from the message is far more valuable than the simple answer to the questions we ask.