This post is probably a bit of rambling from what I experience tonight and my own walk as a Christian.
Tonight, a friend and I had a discussion about how to pray and what’s the best way to pray. It was a wonderful discussion about God, dating, seeking His Will, temptation and everything in between.
At one point, I asked my friend a few questions…
– how come we have to pray when God already know what we want?
– do you really think God will not answer you if you don’t pray ‘rightly’? Side Question: What’s the right way to pray anyway?
The conversation was through the drive on the way back home from downtown. As I pulled on my friend’s driveway, I told him the fact is all the answers to these questions are Sunday School answers. He knew them already. At that point, he realized that it was all in his head. It’s just a matter of linking his life to what he believed in.
…
One of Ravi Zacharias’ ministries is known as Let My People Think. Sometimes Christians are great at having the answer. Not just only the answer but the right one. Especially those we consider as Sunday School answers. But we never really give too much thought to them.
It is a discouragement moment when during a discussion, say in Sunday School when someone answer God is Sovereign or Jesus died on the cross for us and you can see the audience roll over their eyes or stare blankly (I will admit, sometimes I am guilty of that as well).
Tonight, all the answers I gave to my friend were these ‘Sunday School answers’. When my friend realized he already knew them, he said, “wow, I never realize these Sunday School answers have so much depth to it.”
What got both of us excited tonight not because these answers were new, tt was the questions I posed for us to dig around.
I think the question is way more important than the answer..haha.yes..I am sure many have taken from Matrix scene when Trinity told Neo that it is the question that drive us. It is true, at least in my experience, questions drive me to understand more about why we pray. Someone once said it is taking ownership of the answer.
The question drives the thinking process. Not the answers. Truly, the answers are important. In today’s information age, I can practically find all the answers online about Biblical truth, character and everything in between.
For those who teach at Sunday School, the question goes back to how…how can we make others to think of these questions? I think that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit tugs someone’s heart to seek God. It is the Father who calls us to Him, not one day we decided to get up and learn more about God. It is all His being, His calling and His mission.
I am not smart enough to think of the best method of teaching. If I am teaching Sunday School, I probably just pull out a lesson and just go through it (which I do). I do know though, school, or academic learning is not the best method of learning. By this, I mean where one person just spills loads of answers or facts to a mass audience. Perhaps this is all individual basis. It is when the person is will to learn, that becomes important. Perhaps this is why they say it is not about the teacher and it is all about the students.
Something for me to grasp tonight is to recognize when someone is being tugged by the Spirit, direct them with questions and explain with answers. Thinking is indeed more powerful than merely handing out spoonful of answers. And a question, is a good way to start the thinking and the seeking process.
