So, you’ve found yourself questioning everything from God, Religion, Faith, Scripture, life, and maybe even the world around you. It can seem like a lonely place when everything you’ve ever known is in question.
You may be asking yourself, “so what do I do now?” Well, I’ve written a few things that have helped us along the way in our questioning. Here are a few things to remember when you find yourself questioning everything.
Seek Community
Truth is, questioning can seem lonely at times. When you start to question the world around you, you may not know who you can trust with your questions. One of the greatest things Cody and I sought out through our questions is community.
I cannot explain enough how important community is to our doubts, questions, or fears. We talk a lot about community because it is extremely essential when it comes to these hard moments. Isolation is the number one deterrent from being able to find the truth for yourself. When you begin to isolate yourself, you tend to get stuck without any resolve. It’s one thing to question but it’s another thing to question alone.
Whether you start to seek community online, create the community amongst your local city, or reaching out to counsel you trust, being alongside people who understand what you’re going through is extremely vital. Your beliefs may change as it is often a byproduct of growth and maturity. But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to change alongside others as well.
Love Yourself Through the Process
One of the biggest things I advocate for is loving yourself. Whether you’re strong in your faith, questioning the world around you, or open to new ideas, every season is vital. Every season is apart of your growth and maturity as a person. It may be a process but it’s amazing what happens when we love ourselves despite our circumstances. Allow yourself room to grow with your questions, doubts, and fears.
When you begin to love yourself through the process, your paradigm starts to shift about change. Change is inevitable and can often be hard. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take care of yourself. Sometimes this looks like keeping a journal nearby to jot down your feelings. Other times this means giving yourself grace even when those around you aren’t. However you love yourself, remember that only you are in charge of how you feel about your questions. It’s no doubt that it can be harder at times when people scoff or try to challenge you. But when you understand your worth, harsh words can’t destroy the truth for yourself.
Understand that Questions are Important
The truth is, we all have questions. We may not always question our faith or religion, but we all have questions about the world around us. Whether you’re questioning your faith, religion, science, politics, you name it, it’s important to ask questions. But what we tend to forget our questions are the gateway to our core beliefs and who we are.
Your questions are important and absolutely necessary. Even if you come back full circle to your previous beliefs, at least you have a healthy perspective to back up your beliefs. It’s important to question your surroundings because you are able to understand the how and why you believe. And honestly, your questions may help someone else on their spiritual journey.
Realize that God is Able to Take Any Question or Doubt You Throw at Him
Despite how your friends, family, or even strangers on the internet take you, God is capable of handling any question or doubt you may face. There are questions that some people are truly incapable of wrestling with because it either comes at a challenge or feels like a personal attack. But God doesn’t feel personally attacked with our disbelief. He openly invites our doubts, questions, and fears because it means we’re honestly trying to seek Him out.
Honestly, people all throughout the Bible doubted God and question their beliefs about God. Even the people God used in Holy leadership still doubted God. I mean, have you read half of the Psalms or Ecclesiastes or anywhere else that challenged people’s faith? Sure, questions can be scary, but one thing remains true: God isn’t scared of your questions.
So ask them anyway.
Don’t Let Your Questioning Stop There
The only time our questions become harmful is when we stop asking them. When we stop seeking truth for ourselves, we’ve come to a standstill. We grow stagnant in accepting ideas that we don’t actually wholeheartedly believe in just because we want the illusion of having it all together. But the reason why questions are essential to life is because it helps us keep living. Even if we truly know who God is and understand our core values and beliefs, there will still be room for questions. They may be different types of questions but that doesn’t mean we should stop there.
Another way questions can be harmful for our growth is when we become fearful of our questions. Remember how I said that God isn’t afraid of our questions? Well, people are often afraid of questions. And sometimes, that includes us. When start to fear our questions, we aren’t allowing any room for spiritual growth. Sometimes true peace comes through our questions because we start to truly understand who we are as humans. At the root of our questions, we realize what we truly believe in.
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This week, Cody and I are talking about questions and what to do when other people don’t understand your current beliefs (or lack thereof). We talk about how to deal with backlash from your beliefs as well as the importance of understanding the truth for yourself. You can listen here.
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