DARE TO QUESTION

We should not be afraid to embrace our questions and doubts about who we are and why we are here.  Our human capability to think and reason and to be aware of an inner self  is a remarkable gift of our evolutionary heritage.  With this gift we can question earlier answers – even those that have been handed down to us as authoritative and iconic.    This is summarized as a challenge in a poem written by Tor Littmark, a Lutheran pastor in Sweden in 2004 shortly before his death and quoted by John Shelby Spong in one of his weekly essays on his web site.

Dare to question, dare to test things,
Dare to seek, search unconfined.
God’s embodied in your question.
Already God has you in mind.

Dare to question, dare to feel doubt,
Dare to take the path you chose.
God is already deep inside you,
Closer than you dare suppose.

Dare to question, dare to say no to
Far too simple, glib replies.
Dare to wait, and dare to waver.
God will still be at your side.

Dare to question, bold and fearless.
God will still believe in you.
Life in you is God’s own purpose.
Already God has you in view.

Dare to question, doubt and wonder.
You are loved, by God retrieved.
You are longed for, seen, discovered,
Free to live and to believe.

Loren Bullock
July 1, 2009