Questions for Your Life

 

Recently, I heard author Mike Foster discuss his book, The Seven Primal Questions.  I invite you to slowly read these questions, pause after each.  The questions are:

 

Am I safe?

Am I secure?

Am I loved?

Am I wanted?

Am I successful or filled with joy?

Am I good enough?

Do I have purpose?

 

As I pondered these questions, I was struck that there is something foundational and formational that stirs as I hold these questions.  Foster says the questions influence and impact us both intentionally and unintentionally.  Moreover, Foster says that one of these questions will dictate and drive your life.  For example, if we live in a place where we fear for our life daily (as people in Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, and the Sudan do), that question takes center stage.  We may wonder if we are secure financially or perhaps a relationship that was once meaningful has cracked or crumbled because of words spoken or things left unsaid ~ which makes us feel unwanted.  Which leads us to love and maybe a rephrasing of Foster’s question is who embodies God’s unconditional love for you?  When was the last time you felt most completely and unconditionally loved?  Which leads us to feeling necessary or needed or helpful, which also may tie into a sense of purpose or good enough.  Suddenly, you start to see that the questions are twisted and tangled together like Christmas tree lights!

 

The truth is there is a cultural gospel about each of these.  Advertisers tap into these questions and try to sell us a prepackaged product delivered right to our doorstep.  Only, we install the Ring camera and may not feel safe and secure from all alarms.  We may constantly try to seek reassurance from others that we are loved and wanted.  Sometimes success can feel like a carrot on a stick that we never quite catch or grasp. 

 

Does one of the above questions leap off the page for you?  Or maybe it is some messy mixture of all the above questions that you have felt this first month of 2024.  Pay attention to what is stirring and swirling within us can be a holy, curious, creative moment.  Remember that in the beginning, Genesis 1, it was God and the chaos in cahoots with each other.  It is out of the chaos that God forms and fashions light and darkness, stars and sun, manatees and tadpoles.  The soupiness/messiness/chaotic climate doesn’t ever dissolve.  No where does the Bible declare that, “All the chaos disappeared forever and ever, and they all lived happily ever after.”  Nope, these questions continue to weave their way into scripture and the scripts of our life each year.   Today, I invite you to hold one of these questions close to your heart.  Invite the question to sit down for a cup of coffee and ponder not just do you feel safe or secure or loved, but when have you felt most fully loved during the month of January?  Who was part of bringing God’s love to life?  What is one moment in January that filled you with a sense of joy (I like that better than successful)?  How can you embrace your beautifully messy less-than-perfect stable-size life?  I pray these questions will percolate in your soul in these January days.  Please pray with me: God of questions that cause us to delight, draw near as our next breath today helping us take a journey to explore and experience Your love, enough-ness, peacefulness, joyfulness, and safe embrace this day.  Amen.