Ask One Good Question
II was probably twenty years old, in college and volunteering as a Young Life leader working with high school kids. One of the area staffers asked if I wanted to meet him for coffee. We did, sitting in a coffee shop somewhere, catching up on life and ministry and then…he asked the question. “So, what’s the Lord teaching you right now?” Very casual, as though he asked it all the time. It caught me a little off guard. To answer meant I would have to reflect a bit, not something I was well-practiced in at the time. Then it meant being honest, not just trying to come up with something that sounded good. And it meant looking at the immediate present, not something from long ago. I took a deep breath…and tried to answer.
In the forty-some years that have passed since that coffee date, I have asked a similar question approximately…a thousand times? Maybe two thousand? In life. With friends. Amongst family. In ministry. Of congregation members. With colleagues. Rarely has it failed to lead to a good conversation that goes several layers deeper than it otherwise would have. Inevitably, both parties end up answering the question. And it usually becomes not just one thing we’re learning, but several. Sometimes it dredges up hard and painful things, other times joyful ones. So, what’s the Lord teaching you right now?” To name something in the present moment, a learning edge of faith requires reflection. “Listen to your life,” was the way Frederick Buechner said it. Or “Let your life speak,” is Parker Palmer’s version.
After decades of rich conversation with others emanating from that one question, it dawned on me that I could ask myself the question. “So…Dan. What’s the Lord teaching you right now?” I tried it this week, and two things came up very quickly. Here they are:
1) I was recently put in touch with a longing I have, maybe have always had in some ways. The longing, to use an old cliché, is to increasingly not just know about God but actually know God. I do, and that relationship has certainly deepened over the years, but I still feel sometimes like I’ve only scratched the surface.
This realization reappeared this week after I ran across a quote I jotted down years ago. After becoming a lifelong fan–the slightly obsessive variety–of the musical Les Miserables, I finally tackled Victor Hugo’s masterpiece novel in 1998. It took a couple tries. The quote comes near the beginning of the book, and it describes a Bishop who plays a critical role in God’s reclamation of the fugitive Jean Valjean. Here’s what the narrator said about the Bishop: “He did not study God; he was dazzled by Him.” Yes, some of that for me, please. I spend lots of time in study, but is my heart so soft, so open that I can appreciate the character, compassion, might, love of God and be overwhelmed by his grandeur and magnificence? I will continue studying, but where my study leaves off, can wonder take over? I long for that.
2) Gospel. How many times have you said the word? Probably you’ve even studied it in various ways. Certainly you’ve heard a sermon where a preacher used the words-which-should-be-forbidden-in-the-pulpit “In the Greek…” and then talked about euangelion, evangel, good news and all things related. Very good. But what about “gospel?” That’s not Greek, and it’s not Latin, so how is it that we get from evangel to gospel? It turns out you need to go back to Olde English, where my research says two words are stuck together to form gospel. Good/God + spel (story) = Godspel, good story, or God’s story. I love that. I found myself mulling it over on a run this week. The gospel is God’s story. Not my story. Not yours. God’s. The story that includes creation, incarnation, redemption and the hope of eternity. That’s gospel. We get to carry it, share it, speak it and then watch to see what happens because God keeps adding to his story. Even more amazing, he has added us to that story. And rather than be intimidated by our calling to evangelism, bogged down by techniques and wondering if we have an answer to every question someone may ask us, it’s way simpler than that. We just tell God’s story. Gospel.
Ask one small question, and upon reflection, life bubbles up. God IS present and working–softening hearts and dazzling us and inviting us to connect to His story. So the next time you have coffee with someone, try it: “So…what’s the Lord teaching you right now?” But you don’t have to wait. You could ask yourself the same question. Right now.
Peace of Christ,
Dan Baumgartner
Dan Baumgartner is the senior pastor at The Cove in Santa Rosa CA and serves as Secretary on The Fellowship Community Board.