“Yikes …. I Don’t Know The Answer”

Detective stories intrigue me. There was a T.V. show in the late ‘70’s called Quincy? “Quincy was an American mystery medical drama starring Jack Klugman as a LA medical examiner; he routinely engaged in police investigations .… doing “post mortems”, asking questions, looking for answers. Quincy was tenacious and curious. He was so convincing that I once saw him on a talk show and the host was asking him medical questions…… “ah excuse me, he’s really not a doctor….” 

A big part of  learning begins with curiosity. Quincy was always curious….. at some point formulating a good question…. “hmmmm, was that rubber knife really the murder weapon.”  It  usually takes time to formulate a good question; but, a good question sets us up to find the right answer. Maybe we get the answer in five minutes, or next month or part now and part later.… bit by bit we understand it.  

There have been times when I felt I always needed to have the answer right away…. “the answer man… the font of wisdom”.  Yet, it’s really okay to admit I don’t know the answer to a particular question; I may have some thoughts, but I really don’t know. It’s okay to say, “wow, that’s a really good question…I never thought of that…..”. In this process, we open ourselves up to gaining wisdom. 

In reading the New Testament, it’s interesting to see Jesus drawing out the stirrings in a person’s soul by asking questions. Sometimes people got the answer right and received a pat on the head from the Lord……” oh you’re not far from the kingdom of God …… “truly not even in all of Israel have I found such faith. (Mt. 8:10). Sometimes people  got a big “eye roll from the Lord”…. “are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you don’t understand this.” All of the Lord’s questions and subsequent responses were acts of love, helping the person embrace the truth that sets us free. 

Dave, is there a point to this BLOG? Hmmmmm, I’m wondering that too. I’ll keep typing and maybe something will present itself. Okay, here’s a few thoughts to consider:

1. It’s not bad to be stumped…. finding ourselves in a quandary ….. not knowing what’s going on or how to get out of the latest mess we’ve made, not knowing the answer to the question or problem before us. Consider that it may be our Lord taking us to the next level…. causing us to cry out for help….causing us to ask real questions, and search for the answer we need to have.
2. Often I’ve found that the harder it is for me to find the answer to a question or issue, the longer I remember it, and the deeper it goes into my mind and soul. I tend to ponder it. On the other hand, how many “google answers” do you remember?
3. In some ways getting an answer to a question is  like putting a puzzle together;  we find some pieces and begin to see part of the picture, and then a few more…” oh yes, it’s a train coming thru a tunnel… a few more pieces, “wow there’s a mouse driving the train”…. a few more pieces.  Sometimes we find pieces to the puzzle while sitting on the beach looking at the ocean, reading the scripture, listening to a homily, talking to a friend….

Time to end this very incomplete BLOG. Like the topic at hand, I hope we’ve uncovered a few helpful insights, but there is much more. Let’s keep our eyes open and we may continue to learn and gain wisdom. The Lord is patient and he will continue to help us…and that is very good news.