If there was a single question which I find myself addressing in my various roles, it is “why”.
On one hand it is a simple question and yet it is often a front to so much more. The spectrum driving the question ranges from a need to know to a less than subtle passive resistant technique. At times, as the question emerges from a group, the motivations are a mixed combination which adds to complexity in how one should respond.
Why questions are natural. You and I have been asking why since we were able to express our first words as a child. With the freedom to choose, one is always on a quest to understand the rationale behind the choices we make. It is easy to forget that we seek out the why in our lives as part of building the foundation for our souls. Foundation principles we hold close to our hearts reflect the conclusions of our quests for why. As our quests reveal more, who we are shifts to align itself.
Why questions remain open, works in progress, until each is unresolved. The impact is a, to me, confusing dynamic of living out life while we seek to find and understand the answers which underpin it. In my childhood, I was certain that I had answered every why. As I age, I have come to appreciate how my quest to understand my soul’s why will be work which continues to my final day.
With honorable intent in the question as well as less so, I believe why questions should be answered. Starting with their natural origins, a thirst which must be satisfied, there are endless reasons leading one to conclude that each deserves an answer. A lesson which follows is the accountability in knowing the why and the responsibility in how the why is used. Ultimately the answers to one’s why quests will define who we are. It is the psalmist’s model in his description of Divinity. “And why? Because God delights in his people, festoons plain folk with salvation garlands!” (Psalm 149.4)
