MINISTER'S MONTHLY MUSING - JUNE
Question Time
I wonder what TV programmes make you immediately change channel?! There must be a few as none of us share the same tastes or like the same things. One of the programmes taht may possibly be in many people's lists is ‘Question Time’ – the programme with an audience firing questions at a gathered group of mainly politicians. Recently the host of the show began his introduction with the following words “Welcome to Question Time, the programme in which the audience fires straight questions at the panel and the panel give … er… answers!”
Maybe that’s what is offputting about this programme – you never get a straight answer to a perfectly straight question. And you never hear anyone honestly say “I don’t know the answer to that question” when clearly they just don’t! So you can often get five minutes of waffle which goes nowhere to help you find an answer to a perfectly ordinary question. (To be fair though, there are moments of pure brilliance as well.)
If we had a chance to fire questions at the panel, what might we ask? How about
“How do I know the fridge light goes off when I shut the fridge door?” or
“Why do they put life jackets under your seat in an aeroplane instead of parachutes?” or
“why do I wake up early on days when I don’t have to go to work?” or
“Why does my nose run and my feet smell?!!”
Joking aside, I wonder what questions are on your mind? And this is the odd thing … We all have questions – some very ordinary, some serious and some very deep. So why isn’t a programme like ‘Question Time’ getting the highest viewer ratings. The reason is obviously to do, not with the questions, but with the answers. We simply don’t believe the answers!
The greatest question is “What is the meaning of life?” Ever since the beginning of the world this is the most asked and most discussed question. Everyone wants to know the answer and many attempts at answering it have been given down the centuries. But, even in twenty-first century Britain, you still can’t find a good human answer to this ultimate question. My hunch is that we humans don’t have the answer in ourselves because it is a question that reaches out of our day-to-day existence and cries out into the sky with feelings of helplessness, frustration and confusion.
I believe that the ultimate question has its answer in the ultimate God – the one who made us and knows us, who gave his Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sakes. Being a disciple, a follower of Jesus, being part of a body of disciples who meet regularly, is an honest attempt to explore the meaning of life through questioning and thinking together about God and His ways and purposes for people on earth. Any question should be allowed and there will even be times when you hear people say “I just don’t know. Yet I still believe."
You don't have to know all the answers to be a child of God, to follow Jesus, to be a Christian. In fact the more questions you have, the more you learn, the more you grow, the more it all starts to make sense. So what questions do you have for God today? Try him out!You might be pleasantly surprised by the answers.