just ask the right question...

ask questions. that’s a decision i can make to improve communication this week. ask questions.

questions have the power to challenge and clarify. look at how JESUS challenged a close friend of HIS with a question. mark 8.29 (lb), JESUS asked of peter, “who do you think I am?” and peter answered, “you’re the messiah.” that’s the first time anyone ever said that. that’s the greatest confession of faith in the new testament. it came because JESUS challenged peter with a question. that changed everything.

statements tend to confront. they build barriers. questions, asked in the right way, tend to challenge. they can break through barriers.

a lot of times when we want to challenge somebody else, instead of using a question, we use volume. we get louder and louder. we feel that the louder we get, the better people will hear. as a preacher i have problems with that many times.

when somebody talks at you really loud, does it make you want to listen to them? no. you build a barrier. you don’t want to hear that. but when you use a question, phrased in the right way, well thought out, it can break through that barrier.

back before this guy was a believer in CHRIST, and understood what CHRISTianity was about (he thought he understood it) but someone asked him a question, “would you like to know that you’re a CHRISTian?” now he didn’t want to talk to them and sort of blew them off. but he thought about that. the question challenged him.

he’d always thought that you couldn’t know. you had to wait until you got to heaven. it was some kind of huge lottery in the sky whether you made it in or not. but when he was asked that question, he kept thinking, “can you know for sure?” that was one of the things that led him to faith in CHRIST, to understanding what CHRISTianity really is. it’s not just trying to be good. it is finding out that there is a relationship found in CHRIST and there is forgiveness and you can know. that question challenged his thinking.

questions also clarify. they help you to identify what you’ve just said is what the other person heard you just saying. clarification is important in communication.

i can’t tell you how many arguments margaret, my wife and i have had over the fact that we just didn’t understand what the other person was saying, over one little phrase that we said the wrong way and didn’t understand it. we all do this. and if we just ask the right question at the right time, it would have changed everything. it has the power to clarify.

just a thought from the front porch…