God is a Question

How will you respond?

In his book The Afternoon of Christianity, Czech philosopher Tomáš Halík offers this fascinating idea: “God comes to us not only as an answer but also as a question.” I grew up in the American south — the Bible Belt — where “Jesus is the answer” is a common perspective on the way things are. There’s nothing wrong with seeking “answers” in our spiritual life: we want a sense of being grounded in truth and goodness and beauty. But what if the ultimate answer actually is a deeper question? What is the response to “What is the meaning of life?” is something along the lines of “Can you express the deepest desire of your heart, and do you understand how it is related to a life of delight?” (That’s just one possibility of how God might come to us as a question, and is based on Psalm 37:4).