The Life-Giving Power of Questions

When blogging "for the sake of heaven," it's easy to get the last word in when you post right before Shabbos! However, even though a new week has begun, I'm hoping my generous hosts at Beliefnet--and my colleagues who've graciously invited me to join their conversation--will extend my opportunity to offer some thoughts.

I wrote a book called, "The Answer" because I believe that answers are precisely what we want and need in order to make the best possible use of our finite time in this world. I also believe we are living in an answer-addicted, inquiry-allergic culture, where people genuinely want to "tidy up" but are afraid of the mess they have to wade through in order to do the tidying, and, in the face of that fear, tend to take short-cuts that often leave them feeling even less capable of imposing order on the chaos than when they began. I have framed each chapter of the book with a question to remind us all that we have the power to use the questions that come into our lives no matter where or how we live, no matter how hermetically sealed we've attempted to make our existence, or how tightly controlled the environment, to shape and arrive at real, lasting, substantive answers all the days of our lives.