The Bible Has Its Own Questions . . .

Opening ourselves to being questioned by God means, here and now, surrendering ourselves to the Word of Scripture, a word that probes and questions us as we read it. As many questions as we have about the world and as important as they are, we should remember that the Bible has its own questions that it poses to us. Will we faithfully strive to understand the text? Will we live within its commandments, once we discern them?

How shall we respond when Jesus asks, "And who do you say I am?" "Do you take offense at this?" "Do you want to go away as well?" Learning to ask questions along with Scripture means opening ourselves to the text, integrating it into our hearts and habits, and allowing it to reform our inquiries . . .

But we can only welcome those questions [when] we first open our ears to hear, and I worry that these days we are so noisily putting forth our own questions that we have no silence to listen to His.

—Matthew Anderson, The End of Our Exploring, 44.