"Definitive answers had long been a comfort to me. I listened, without questioning, for years to the wisdom of my parents, teachers, and ministers. I welcomed the certainty that there was an explanation, a logic, a right answer, for the many parts of life I didn't understand. Eventually, though, somewhere around the time my Lutheran pastor frowned at my questions, such conviction began to feel stifling rather than reassuring......
That’s what has kept me among Friends for over thirty years. Not only is it acceptable to ask questions, it’s expected. We use open-ended questions that invite us to speak from our own experiences and that guide us to explore how God is leading us now, individually and collectively. So now, I sit in the silence—sometimes on a hard, wooden bench, but usually on a couch in a friend’s living room or on a folding chair at a Quaker gathering, at other times on a rocky beach or deep in a pine forest—and ask questions. And now, it’s the questions that sustain me through life’s mysteries."
~ Iris Graville
More at http://bloggerbyconvincement.blogspot.co.uk
Artwork by Roger Medearis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Medearis
No comments:
Post a Comment