Thoughts Along The Journey

If you didn’t see it, Carolyn commented on yesterday’s blog post by writing: “David, I enjoyed this thought. Can you “unpack” or expand on this idea: “First, at times ‘over-questioning’ is a smokescreen for our criticism, not our constructive, critical help. We simply want to prove that we are right about the theological or missiological standing behind our comments, rather than help the brother or sister move a new idea forward.”

So here goes.  ‘Over-questioning’ is when we ask lots of questions where the primary focus is to ‘take apart others’ ideas’.  Our objective is not first to come alongside and assist the other to ‘improve’ the idea by our questions.

If we push back on the someone’s implied criticisms through their questions, we often get a response such as: “I’m just asking questions. I think there are some missiological and theological issues at stake here.”

All those questions are just a ‘smokescreen’ as to our real intent in the discussion.  There is nothing wrong with asking lots of questions.  However, the Gospel searches out the motivation behind our questioning; seeking to separate out self-centeredness from other-centeredness.

Other-centeredness causes us to have a different view of others and their ideas.  Our questions become the means by which we can ‘develop others’.  And sometimes, ‘development’ means we just need to let people try and see what the Lord might do through their ideas.

I wonder what the Lord, and the disciples, thought when Peter asked to step out of that boat.

Filed under: Development, Gospel, Other centeredness |