Why Do You Ask?

This is a transcript of Episode 7 of the WAK Talk podcast. Want to listen on your favorite podcast platform? Click here. Want to watch on YouTube? Click here.

What is the purpose of asking questions?

Questions are a part of everyone’s story. We seek to understand ourselves and the world we live in. We ask: Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? Who am I? What happens after I die? Does God exist? Are heaven and hell real? And so many other questions.

Do you ever stop to think about why you ask questions? Or do you think about how many questions you ask each day? One study I read says on average, a person has around 6200 thoughts per day. I would bet a high percentage of those thoughts are questions. We have a lot of questions rolling around in our heads. But how many do we actually pursue the answers to?

Imagine if we pursued the answers to each of our questions. What would we discover? How much would we achieve? What kind of person would we become?

Think about the different fields of study. The sciences, the arts, technology, history. They all advance by asking questions.

That’s why I believe questions are super important. Obviously, we can argue that the answers are more important, but we wouldn’t have answers or at least be seeking answers without first having questions. Without questions we’ve either given up on the answers or we are ignoring the answers all together. Asking questions means we have a willingness to learn. We are humble because we know we don’t know everything.

Why Do You Ask?

Asking questions may seem pretty basic. We ask hundreds or thousands everyday. You may be thinking: Why would I need help in that area? There’s actually a lot involved with asking questions, especially if our whole intent is to seek the truth and live in truth. The truth can be confusing and difficult to find or understand. And I would argue that the internet hasn’t done us any favors in this area. In the Age of Information, it’s easy to find answers, but it’s harder to find the truth. I believe asking questions can help us navigate the sea of information to find the truth. But this can only happen if we are willing to put in the effort to seek the truth.   

There’s a huge life lesson to be learned in developing our question asking for the purpose of living in truth. Questions need to have a purpose behind them and a motivation to answer them. So, you may have a lot of questions, but What are you doing with your questions? Do you care enough to pursue the answers?

Here are five reasons to ask questions that will help you understand the importance and the purpose of your question asking:

1. To receive an answer. More specifically, to find the truth. The most basic reason for asking a question is to get an answer in return. That’s the expectation. And with this expectation, we honestly desire the truth. Or at least we should desire the truth and not just any answer. For example, if I ask you what your name is, I expect to hear your true name, not some name you thought of on the spot.
2. To learn. This is probably the main reason you and I ask questions. We want to learn. A good philosophy to keep in life is to never stop learning. This requires us to ask questions. If we’ve stopped asking questions, then we’ve stopped learning.
3. To think. When we are learning, we are generally thinking. Thinking should involve reason and logic. We need to be willing to evaluate and test the answers we find to our questions. Do the answers make sense? On my podcast, I do not want to teach you what to think, but how to think. I want you to think on your own. It’s never good to blindly follow someone. Test what they are saying. This requires asking questions.
4. To apply. When we are asking questions to seek answers, learn, and think, we are gaining knowledge and understanding to be applied to our day to day lives. If this isn’t happening, what’s the point? We should have a reason for asking questions, especially if they are big life questions.
5. To have heart and mind transformation. When we ask questions, we have to come face to face with the facts. And those facts may tell us that we are wrong. We have to be okay with this. So, what I mean by this fifth reason is to be humble as we ask questions and listen to answers with an open mind. If we learn something that is contrary to our worldview and makes sense, then let’s ask some more questions. We may discover that we need to change our thinking and even our way of living.

Here’s an example to look at. At the beginning of a new year many people make New Year Resolutions. They set new goals and make new plans for themselves. What do you typically do when you set goals and make plans? You ask questions. Where would I like to be by this time next year? What do I need to change? What should I continue this year?

And then you ask more questions. How can I make these changes? What do I need to do to reach these goals?

As you are doing this, you are applying the five reasons for asking questions I just gave you. You are asking questions to pursue and find answers for what goals and plans to make and how to pursue them. You are learning about yourself by thinking about the previous year and how to move forward. You are thinking about how you need to change and grow, and where to start. This then is giving you knowledge and understanding for applying these goals and plans to the new year. And last, everything you just did is for the purpose of change. You want to become a better you by the end of this new year. 

From that example, we can see how asking questions takes some thinking. It’s a process. I’m not saying we need to do this with every question we have, but for questions that significantly affect our lives we should be willing to put in the effort to find the truth.

We have so much information at our fingertips, it’s easy to quickly grab the first answer we find. It’s also easy to gain a bunch of information without asking any questions. This can be dangerous. I strongly believe asking questions is vital to find the truth, understand it, and then live by the truth.

Do You Care?

Now that you have a better understanding of the purpose of asking questions, the big question that follows is: Do you care? Do you care enough about your big questions to seek the answers—to seek the truth? If you’re going to put in the effort to look for an answer, you might as well put in the work to find out the correct answer.

Or maybe you don’t want to answer all your questions. Some, you might even try to ignore because you’re afraid to find out the answers. Or maybe you don’t want to find out that you’re wrong.

Questions in My Life

In my own life, questions have made a huge impact. They’ve helped me take a step back to look at life from different perspectives. They’ve helped me cultivate a life-long learner attitude. Growing up, I remember sitting in my room thinking deeply often. I would ask a lot of questions about myself, about God, and about the world. But my biggest question has always been “why”. I wanted to understand why I am the way I am. Why do I worry so much? Why is the world the way it is? Why do I believe what I believe? Why am I here?

These are complex questions to answer. And God helped me answer them. I’m not saying I have a complete understanding of all of these things, but God has consistently showed me where the best place to start looking for answers is. It’s in His Word. That’s why in each of my podcast episodes I’m going to point to Jesus and reference the Bible.

I even wrote two books where I walk readers through questions I’ve wrestled with. Questions about worry, time, and God’s will in my first book, Time: A Barrier of Our Will. And questions about the state of the world, truth and lies, good and evil, God, hope, and more in my second book, A Hypnotizing World. In these books, you can see my thought process and what I struggled with, but then see the source of truth that I went back to every time.

What are your “why” questions?  

Child-Like

That is the big question I want you to hear and ask. Our attention is in so many different places. We’ve got to do this, see that, experience this, and be all that, but why? There’s that persistent question that kids love to ask. Why? Go clean your room. Why? Don’t touch that. Why? We don’t say that. Why?

When a parent takes the time to really answer these questions instead of simply saying: “Because I said so.” a child is better prepared to know there is an answer to their “why” when they get out in the big world. They’re better equipped to ask questions and think on their own.  

Maybe this is part of having a child-like faith that adults seem to quickly forget because of all the noise drowning out their “why”. When we know our “why”, then we live differently. 

Maybe we need to ask “why” more. 

Answering our “why” questions can lead to helpful truths that cause us to grow and change. For example, I’m reading a book about how to overcome my fear of public speaking. One of the first steps is asking yourself why you have this fear. What happened in your past that initially brought this fear on? The reason this is helpful is because it’s getting to the root issue. It’s not a band-aid. It’s seeking to understand the reason you fear, instead of attempting to cover it up and push through or ignore it all together and continue living in fear.

Questions help us break things down for better understanding. I can easily get overwhelmed and anxious about certain things. But when I ask questions, I am able to take things in smaller doses.

When we find the answers to our questions and when we find the truth, it’s freeing to understand whatever our questions were about. Whether that’s truth about ourselves, life, purpose, the world, or something else.

Why do you think God made us curious? Why did He make us to question? I think the biggest reason He made us this way is to draw us to Himself. All of our big life questions should lead us to Him. He’s behind our “why” question. He is why we are here. And when we ask a lot of questions, trusting that He will answer, we are practicing a child-like faith.

What do kids do? They ask a lot of questions. And they trust that their parents will give them the answers. How much more should we trust that God will give us the answers? He created all things and, therefore, knows all things. He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross to save us from ourselves. He knows us enough to know that we wouldn’t choose to save ourselves even if we were able to because of our sin. I think He can answer our biggest questions. He may not answer us right away or in the way we want or expect. But He will answer us if we ask.

Here’s what Jesus says in Matthew 7, verses 7 and 8: “‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.'”

I think in large part, we’ve stopped asking questions. We’ve become too proud and reliant on our own strength and intelligence. We’ve gotten comfortable with going to Google for all the answers. We’ve become complacent by allowing other people to tell us what is “true” and not questioning it.

Maybe we need to start asking more questions. Maybe we need to be more like children and ask “why” more.

How much do you ask God compared to Google? I get it, we all want answers fast and we want a predictable system. But instant answers aren’t always helpful. Maybe some of our questions require us to think more deeply. It took me 15 years to finish my second book. Most of that time was spent asking hard questions and spending time with God. He had to work on my heart and mind before I understood some of the answers I give in the book.

Maybe you need to spend more time with God. Seek Him out. Ask, seek, knock. He is waiting to hear from you and He is ready to lovingly walk with you to help you find the answers you seek. You simply need to trust Him and have patience.