Asking the right questions

While visiting Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona recently with Jen, I was reminded of how much I love great questions. In particular, I find that the scriptures that mean most to me, and have had the greatest impact on my life, are those that ask deep, probing question.

In this case, Gaudi called out Pilate's haunting question, "What is truth," made such by the bitterly ironic fact that he was likely staring at Truth even as he asked the question.

Another question that guides my life is that asked by Christ's apostles when He suggested one of them would betray Him (Matthew 26:22). Rather than point fingers, as we're wont to do, they asked,

"Lord, is it I?"

We're always well-served by looking inward for fault before we assign it to others.

Another question that I love is found in both the Book of Mormon (Alma 32:5) and in the New Testament (Acts 2:37), and comes in response to people feeling "pricked in their heart" by the spirit of truth. In both places earnest people ask,

"What shall we do?"

This question, like the first, is a mark of humility; a willingness to not only to listen, but to do. It's a reminder to me that faith without works is dead, with faithful works meaning much more than going to church and such. It's a question that should lead us to be our best selves in every situation.

Of course, often we're stymied in our quest to know what to do because we lack the right influences, which is why I love the question the Ethiopian asks Philip in Acts 8:31 when Philip queries whether he understands the writings of Isaiah:

"How can I, except some man should guide me?"

This question helps me to remember that I have a duty as a steward of so many good things, whether in religious, business, family, or other affairs. "No man is an island, entire of himself," wrote John Donne, and the same is true for each of us. We have a responsibility to care for others - to remember to "guide" others, in whatever fields our particular talents qualify us to guide others.

There are other scriptural questions that guide me ("Can you feel so now?" "Have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers?" etc.), but these three have a material impact on me every day.