We’ve all had to wrestle with difficult questions before, whether they be about the gospel, relationships, or important decisions we need to make.
Whatever your situation, it can feel disheartening if an answer doesn’t seem to be coming through. These periods of silence may cause us to wonder if it’s worth asking questions at all.
If you’re wrestling with God over a question or know someone who is, a recent episode of the Magnify podcast might provide a perspective you haven’t considered.
Questions Are Essential
Dr. Katie Paxman, a philosopher and Brigham Young University professor, joined Magnify this week, and she explained that asking questions is a developmental step in forming our personal philosophy of the world.
“When we passively form our worldviews, we just kind of allow things to enter at us,” Dr. Paxman said, “and whatever is loudest or comes most often determines what we think. That is a non-active way of engaging in our belief formation.”
She pointed out that when we approach life in this passive way, we’ll be “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14).
Asking questions allows us to preserve our agency and grow in understanding. We remain active participants in our lives by staying curious and open to new knowledge—both spiritually and temporally.
The father of Western philosophy, Socrates, implied that we may even have a moral obligation to ask questions when he stated that “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
So, instead of feeling weak, desperate, or lacking in faith when we have questions, we can instead choose to feel empowered by our active seeking.
Our Questions Determine Our Answers
So, if questions are good for us and we know God wants us to ask them, then why do we sometimes hear only silence?
Speaking in philosophical terms, Dr. Paxman said, “Progress is not necessarily coming to really robust answers but actually developing more and more nuanced questions.”
Magnify Podcast Producer Sarah Collins, in turn, asked the burning question, “How does that not just frustrate you?”
“It’s not that we don’t want answers,” Dr. Paxman responded, “It’s rather that the answers are more valuable the better the questions are. So, building up a bank of really good questions that help you think about things in new ways is going to be a means of gaining more and better knowledge and light. … The questions we’re able to ask, the things we’re able to understand, are going to determine the content that God can give us.”
Dr. Paxman’s insight resembles a helpful perspective C. S. Lewis shared in his book A Grief Observed:
“Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask—half our great theological and metaphysical problems—are like that.”
Have Patience—Receiving Answers Takes Time
Dr. Paxman also reminds us that receiving revelation requires more than simply asking God a question. It requires deep study, thought, and investment. And even with all this work, receiving an answer may still take a while.
“Some questions don’t get answered right away,” she said. “I really do believe, sometimes, one question is answered with a prompting to think about other questions. If a child says to me, ‘Why is the sky blue?’ … a highly scientific answer … wouldn’t be valuable to [them]. But helping them ask more and more productive questions is more likely to result in deep understanding.”
Just as a child needs to become knowledgeable in several fields of science to truly understand why the sky is blue, we may also need additional experiences and knowledge before we can receive our desired answer.
“What a comforting thought for probably all of us to hear,” Sarah responded. “These questions are okay. In fact, we should embrace them. They’re leading us onto our deeper spiritual journey.”
As we grapple with the unknowns in our lives, we can take advice from Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who wrote the following to his young friend:
“I would like to beg you … to have patience with everything in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will … live your way into the answer.”
For more insights on receiving revelation, check out the articles below:
▶ 8 quotes from Church leaders on how to receive personal revelation
▶ Elder Bednar’s reassuring insight on repetition will breathe new life into your routine
▶ Ponder this compelling question next time you want revelation