Questions

In order to trust or have faith in someone you need to get to know them. This can be a long process because people are complicated and not around you 24/7.

Say you meet a new neighbor in your community. After you get past the basic greeting, you ask the simplest of questions. "What is your name?" "Where are you from?" "What do you do?"

Once you get to this level, you move to more specific questions in order to decide whether or not this person can be a friend, and if so, at what level of friend they can be. These questions will be more about food, skills, family, politics and religion. As you progress in your attempt to know someone these questions become increasingly more personal.

If the person at any time does not meet a growing interest level, the relationship you have will only go that far.

The friendship is now limited by your mutual trust in each other, because of the differing viewpoints. You might hang out with them on a Saturday neighborhood get together, but you will never confide in them your struggles at home.

Only the greatest of friends will ever really know your pain and fears. With these friends you have developed a level of trust based on not just knowing them, but also respecting them so much that their opinions could even change you, and how you view the world.

When I first realized that Jesus Christ was real and that He is in fact God as Scripture teaches, I began the very same process to know Him as I would a new neighbor, I asked Him questions.

At first they were simple: "Why am I here?" "Do you like me?" "Can you fix my mess?" Due to the reason I reached out to Him, the questions did include a bit more of my pain and fears than I would have shared with a new neighbor, but the process was similar. The difference was more in His responses.

He replied with words, thoughts, images and feelings. Some so intense they were more like waves of emotion just to get me to understand how much He cared. It was awesome!

He also communicated with circumstances. Coincidences that would answer specific questions, sometimes so obvious that it was laughable. Other times I would see, hear or read something that would just "stick out". I call that Highlighting.

With each question and answer, my interest level grew greater and greater. My trust in God grew each time as well. I was getting to know Him, and I found Him to be absolutely awesome. This changed me.

I changed because His way was better...in every way. Bit by bit, year by year, I modeled my thinking and attitude to be more like Him. I was a fan boy.

I still am. Even now after 40 years, I learn more and more about Him that just stuns me. He is a big God. I think it will take an eternity to know Him completely. I'm OK with that. I'm just glad I've gotten to know Him at all.

Really glad, and it all started with some simple questions.