Why Asking Questions is Important to Spiritual Growth
It really all started with a few questions.
Gathered together in a college dorm room, a group of friends serious about following Jesus and living differently in community began asking themselves a few questions.
Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I am?
Am I an honest person, or do I exaggerate?
Can I be trusted?
Am I a slave to culture around me?
Am I enjoying prayer?
They actually asked 22 questions to each other. They met several times a week to encourage each other, serve the poor, and pursue a life with Jesus together.
When they grew up, one of them wrote hundreds of hymns we still sing today. Another began preaching in fields and was the epicenter of the Great Awakening in the colonies that became the United States. Another, dissatisfied with an organized religion that didn’t lead towards holiness started a revival movement that took England by storm and saved them from a bloody revolution (which was in fashion in Europe at the time). Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, and John Wesley changed the face of the world.
And I think much of it began by them asking themselves questions together in community about personal and spiritual growth.
But this isn’t a history lesson.
I do want to encourage you to understand the power of asking questions of yourself though. (And I’ve got a free tool I want to give you, the link is at the end of this article.)
Some call it the “examen”. The practice of repeatedly coming back to the same questions weekly, if not daily to keep oneself focused on a pathway towards greater growth. That comes from St. Ignatius, a Roman Catholic priest and one of the founder of the Jesuit order. It is a method of internal prayer and examination.
At another level, I love the field of appreciative inquiry. A few years ago I spent a year getting certified as an appreciative coach through my friends at PiP ministries. Appreciative inquiry is a model that helps people understand change at an internal level through focused, and positive questions. The first, and possibly my favorite principles of appreciative inquiry is the constructionist principle. This proposes that what we believe to be true determines what we do, and with that understanding a whole host of questions can begin to unfold around our inner life. In short, Appreciative Inquiry is an invitation to see towards the future of "what could be", instead of lamenting in past mistakes and situations and it uses intentional questions to find growth.
I think the role of questions in our spiritual development really anchors us into the first step of repentance, to know that we have to make changes in our life. Questions, especially when repeated and noted down (as I wrote about in my post on 4 Journaling Lists for Spiritual Development), help us to come into a greater sense of personal clarity and marks we take on the journey.
Self-examination is actually really strong self-discovery.
Self-examination matters because it is one of the ways we get into the critical issues of the heart. It means taking responsibility for “the self”. The Self is the critical part of our hearts where free will and response are worked out. Taming “The Self” is an act of sanctification. It is the mode (post-justification) where we are willingly giving ourselves up to God, allowing the tough work to be done by the Holy Spirit and creating a transformed heart. The writing of Robert Mulholland Jr*, one of my New Testament professors, are some of the best resources I know of to begin understanding the role and life of our “self”.
Two things are happening when we take responsibility for The Self.
1.We are taking responsibility for the inward AND outward act of submission to Jesus
2. We are participating in the transforming life of God in the world. Our story then is added to the story of the world.
I’m a big fan of not fixing what is broke. In the history of the church we have seen the power of intentional and deliberate questions as a form of spiritual discipline and power. They are great when used personally. They are even stronger when used together.
So lets start asking ourselves questions.
So How do I Start Asking Questions?
Each week our church produces what we call "The Homesheet". It is a personal discipleship tool to continue reflecting and growing on what was shared out of God's word on Sunday morning. The top section is all about the questions we ask. You can check out the most current homesheet here.
I also want to make sure I resource you on this journey of asking questions. You can get a free discipleship tool with my favorite questions I use in my own time of personal devotion and worship here.