Asking the Hard Questions: A New Blog Series

In November, I asked a difficult question on this blog: What if God did not do one more good thing for me? People liked it, people found it theologically unsound, people were challenged by it, some had already asked themselves this many times. It still evokes much thought and emotion in me to ponder. It’s a hard question. But aren’t those the best kind?

I’m about to make a big commitment I’m afraid of (and if you read my last post, you understand my commitment-phobe tendencies). Every Monday at 10:00 a.m. central time for what’s left in this year of 2011, and there’s a lot left, I will pose a difficult question on this blog followed by my thoughts on the matter sure to be mixed in with a few quotes from C.S. or Jesus or Emily Dickinson. Depending on the topic and whomever I find has written a much more sufficient answer than I could ever construe.

While I have not written a list of 52 hard questions, I’ll assume many will be theological or somehow relate to my worldview of Christianity. Many I will not want to think about much less articulate publicly. Many will not have an answer and maybe some will force me to change the answer I’ve believed for too long with too little foundation.

I will keep them short, somewhere between 300 and 400 words, and I will keep them open for you to chime into whenever you please. You can even come up with my next question if one’s burning in you. I’m sure to run dry of inspiration around June. Or February.

I will try to ask the question freshly, as if I’ve never asked it of myself. I will try to ask questions that lead to more questions. Dead ends are no fun.

The objection of all this? I’m not sure, and I’m not sure I need one. Living life without questioning it, without allowing curiosity to overtake us now and again, without digging underneath, around and through all the options hardly seems worth our time.

22 Comments

  1. denalyn on January 10, 2011 at 10:58 am

    You’ve always been my curious child, wanting to investigate the unusual or strange or just the unknown. When you were 4 we called it perpetual motion:)
    Can’t wait for next Monday. I love you

  2. andrealucado on January 10, 2011 at 11:00 am

    Question #1: Why have I always been my parents’ favorite child? 🙂

  3. katieinnashville on January 10, 2011 at 11:13 am

    I love this Andrea! Can’t wait to see what you write about. I recently watched a biography on Diane Sawyer where she told the story of a man who instead of asking his child everyday when he got home from school if he had learned anything he asked the child if he asked any good questions that day. I love that thought and I love this new challenge you’re giving yourself.

  4. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Katie Richards. Katie Richards said: RT @andrealucado Asking the Hard Questions: A New Blog Series: http://wp.me/pTTGh-7e // this is gonna be good… […]

  5. Rick C on January 11, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    I’m studying the Prison Epistles at the moment and here is one verse I just came across and perhaps have read a million times. Colossians 4:18 Remember my Chains.

    Few NT words give authenticity to the Christian message like Colossians 4:18- ‘Remember my chains.’ Brilliant! If I may suggest, think about it.

    I think a good writer probably could write a very good book based on those three words as found in one very simple declarative statement at the end of Paul’s life.

    What if that were the motto of today’s Church? Radical!

    Absolutely brilliant!!

    • Andrea Lucado on January 11, 2011 at 7:24 pm

      Rick, what powerful words. Seriously. I often overlook the end of epistles but this one has many layers to it.

  6. Tami Heim on January 11, 2011 at 9:30 pm

    Andrea –
    YOU. GO. GIRL.
    Way to take a stand and be bold. I am signing up and will be waiting to meet you on Mondays. Write on.

  7. Casey on January 13, 2011 at 11:44 am

    There is not much room left in my life for more questions. The more experiences I have, the less I know. The more the questions I face, the fewer the answers I have. I used to think I could tell others how to live; now I am happy when I can keep myself on track. Your 52 questions will help push me up the hill.

  8. […] to discuss here and teetering dangerously close to my max word count. So let’s break it down over the next few weeks. Are we human or are we […]

  9. […] thought I would tackle this question closer to half-way through this year of blogging about the hard questions. It was to be a climactic type of post, smack dab in the middle of month six. Until I happened to […]

  10. Does Love Win? | English Lessons on April 11, 2011 at 10:05 am

    […] my love affair with it: Bravo to someone who is asking questions; I’m obviously a fan of that. A faith not questioned is not a faith worth having. Rob Bell is wrestling in this book with scary […]

  11. […] more self-talk for me than a dissection of a “hard question.” So I must remain true to my series and now ask you something more difficult to confront: Why, assuming it is our choice, do we let […]

  12. […] cliche question I was doomed to ask during this blog series. People often use this question to disprove a loving God. How could a God who loves us allow such […]

  13. […] cliche question I was doomed to ask during this blog series. People often use this question to disprove a loving a God. How could a God who loves us allow such […]

  14. […] dinner table. Why I haven’t ripped off questions from this app for every single post in this series is a good question in […]

  15. […] is what this blog series has begun to force me to do, a lot of repainting (or flat out burning) specifically in the area of […]

  16. […] questão clichê que eu estava destinada a perguntar durante essa série de posts. As pessoas geralmente usam essa pergunta para contestar a idéia de um Deus amoroso. Como um Deus […]

  17. What Do You Know For Sure? | English Lessons on December 26, 2011 at 8:48 am

    […] Lessons Skip to content HomeAbout ← Asking the Hard Questions: A New Blog Series What Parts of My Childhood Faith Must I Leave Behind? → January 17, 2011 · […]

  18. […] can’t think about this. Those. Those are the questions I tried to ask myself this year in my Mondays of posing difficult questions […]

  19. […] question of what the role of a Christian woman is. I’m starting to wonder if this is what this year’s series has been leading up. If maybe this is the question I’ve been trying to get at all along. […]

  20. […] I forget my New Year’s resolution is to post a blog every Monday at 10:00 a.m. Like this week. I forgot/didn’t have time to blog […]

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.