#2: Why Would God Ask ME That Question?

Why Would God Ask ME That Question?

M. B. “Bud” Fields, Jr.

Copyright © 2007 by Grand Organ Productions, LLC
All Rights Reserved

Genesis 1:1-3 (ASV)


(1) “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
(2) And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
(3) And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

In our previous time together, we talked about things of Faith, and divorce, and life. We stopped with the identity of the one Question that God asks each of us: “Do You Love Me?” I asked you not to consider the answer to the question, but rather the question itself. If you have, then perhaps we can talk for a bit about the question, and God, and us.

If you want, pull up a stone, and consider the question with me for a bit.

I met a lady several years ago, at an Evangelical Missions Conference. The very well-known speaker, Dr. Tony Campolo was speaking about missions, and the people who populate them.

At the conclusion of the evening, this lady and I had a chance to have a short conversation. She had experienced something very special in her life during that talk, and she wanted to share it with me.

“I was,” She said matter-of-factly to me, “really overwhelmed when he challenged us to go on a mission to Haiti.” She spoke for some fifteen minutes of the effect his talk had on her, and how she was going to seek a positon as a missionary in Haiti.

And, she did. She called Campolo’s organization, who called his mission office in Haiti. The folks in Haiti, however, were not really excited. They saw the woman’s desire as a definite drawback to their purpose. Most of the missionaries in Haiti are men. Obviously, that could be a problem—a distraction. Additionally, this particular woman happened to be 70 years old. The average age of Missionaries in Campolo’s Haiti effort was 22. Finally, the only reliable transportation that was available to the Missionaries in Haiti was via motorcycle.

So, Campolo himself spoke with the lady a few days later and, for the reasons indicated above, told her that it probably wasn’t going to be a good fit, and they probably couldn’t work it out.

About a month later, the lady called Campolo’s organization again, wanting very badly to speak with the hoss boss himself. He spoke with her, assuring her he remembered her from their previous conversations. (Well, wouldn’t you?)

“I cannot do much about being a woman!” She stated frankly to Campolo. “I really can’t do anything about my age, either.” Campolo quietly agreed. “But, your message so moved me, I just finished my Motorcycle Driver’s Course. I have my license. When can I go to Haiti to work with your Missionaries?”

She went to Haiti, and rode around the country on a motorcycle for over eight years! When she came home, she “settled down” into her second marriage, which now has been life-strong for over 20 years!

Believe it or not, there is one more pertinent “twist” to this story. Hang on.

I never heard Tony Campolo mention the first word about missionaries to Haiti at that conference. He himself reviewed, countless times, the video and audio recordings of that evening. It isn’t there. He didn’t say it. Yet, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that this lady heard the question, and decisively answered it.

Further, she heard it so distinctly that she not only acted on it, but her entire life since has been changed by it. She heard and understood the question so clearly that it was not possible that it was misunderstood. She responded, immediately, and the rest—as they say….

In the book “Experiencing God”, the profoundly insightful Dr. Henry Blackaby talks about seven realities of experiencing God. They are:

“ 1. God is always at work around you.

2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.

3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.

4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.

5. God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.

6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.

7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.”

(Blackaby, H. and King, C., “Experiencing God”, Seven Realities of Experiencing God, pg. 50, Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1994, 1998, ISBN 0-8054-0197-0)

Are you one of the folks that believe that, even if there were a God, He hasn’t much cared about us since the first day of rest?

There are a lot of people in the Bible that would care to disagree. Adam, Noah, Job, Jabez, Moses, Abraham, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, and even Dionesius would all have an argument to your thoughts.

There are many people “of the belly button” alive today that would disagree with that thinking, as well. I will admit that I am one, but only one, of them. And, perhaps you at one time would have listed yourself among this group as well. But, things happen at the speed of life. Somehow, life gets in the way of a lot of things—like faith, for instance. And, for every person who says “I do not believe in God!”, or “I do not believe in God anymore!” there is usually a story to go along with it.

The question that God eventually asks each one of us does not always happen in the years of our invincible youth. Sometimes, we get a little (or a lot) of living under our belts. When God asked Abram the question, he was a very old man. His wife, Sarah, was nearly 100 years old when she got the question. She thought the question was so preposterous, that she broke out in a gut-busting laugh! Remember?

Moses had been through a rough time. Yet, when God asked him the question, he forgot all about the speed bumps in his life—and Moses KNEW from speed bumps. Matthew was a notorious tax collector, and used to do some of his best corrupting around the Temples. Paul? What can we say about Saul of Tarsus? Even his very name evoked fear of death in the Christ-followers of the earliest Church!

Dionesius was a legendary Greek Philosopher, and intellectual giant in a culture rife with intellectual giants. An old man, by the standards of those days, Dionesius had, as his plan for his greatest contribution to Hellenic society, the dedication of the most amazing of all Greek altars: the Altar dedicated to the Unknown God! His life changed the day that God asked him the question, as well. Dionesius laid down his plan, answered the question, went to where God was, and became so well known after that moment that Greek history is full of the tribute to his contributions to Athens, and Athenians—and God.

David was just a child. Adam was a young man. Damirus and Junaria were but young women when God asked them the question. And, what of Elizabeth, and Mary? Mere children! Yet, God asked the question of them, as well.

Of course, it is not the question that was asked that we remember. It was the answer each of these examples gave. Perhaps you are not aware of it, but a great deal has been made about the day that Sir Isaac Newton was asked the question by God. In giving his answer, Newton spent the rest of his life writing over 900 different ways of saying “Yes” to God. He is more well known in the World for his writings, for instance, concerning the prophecies of Daniel than any of his scientific writings.

St. Ignacious was a fallen soldier, nearly mortally wounded in battle when God asked him the question. St. Francis was a wandering, lascivious womaning drunkard. St. John of the Cross was an orphan. Mother Theresa was but a child of twelve.

Before we can really tackle the “how” or the “why” of the question we must really just simply understand that it is a question that will be asked. And, it is a question that we will be, at some point, compelled to answer. Perhaps, if you look at Blackabee’s seven realities, you will look at each of these examples I have given you, and think about any one of them in a different way.

God initiates the conversation. We do not. I have seen people who openly profess that, having been asked the question, they have not only answered “No!”, but have gone so far as to refuse to accept the legitimacy of the One asking the question in the first place. “There is no God!” Well, that certainly is not an original thought, or an original statement is it?

It was Blaise Pascal, a very famous French Mathematician and Philosopher, who first penned the notion that he would rather live as though there were a God, and find out later that he was wrong—than to live as though there were no God, and find out later that he was wrong. His answer? Bet on God. If you are wrong, you have lost nothing. If you are right, you have won everything!

In each life, there really does come a time when you must determine for yourself whether or not you acknowledge that there is a God, and that He is in fact precisely who, and what He says He is. It may come for you in the moment between one breath and the next, when everything is going just terrific in your world. It may come at a time of great sadness or personal tragedy. Or, as for most of us it just comes in a moment of our lives that is, as was so eloquently stated by St. John of the Cross, at a time that for no apparent reason, we come to one of those strange places that he referred to as “The Dark Night of the Soul”. But it will come. When it does, it will place each one of us squarely at the edge of a great abyss—a chasm.

The chasm has actually been described by it’s Creator—God. When we find ourselves on the edge of that great chasm, we will instinctively know that are have arrived. We will find ourselves, perhaps with many others, on the Genesis 1:1 side of that chasm. As we use each of our senses to try to help us in that dark night, we will eventually make out the shape of the one edge of that chasm that each of us sees. We cannot see across to the other side of it. This chasm is entirely too large for us to make out with our poor night vision.

And, like the people “of the belly button”, regardless of the moment, the occasion, or the occurance of our arrival we will know where we are. We will step back from the brink because that’s what we do. It may take some time for us to know that we are there, but we will know. And, of all the clues we will get, there is one clue we cannot ignore or avoid. We will hear a voice reaching across the great expanse of that chasm addressing us by name. In the middle of our plan, God will suddenly intervene in our lives and ask us the one question we must answer. From across the chasm, He will ask us the question.

“Do You Love Me?” “DO You Love Me?” “Do YOU Love Me?” Echoing across the depth and breadth of the chasm, the question will peal into the core of our being. “Do You LOVE Me?” “Do You Love ME?”

And, at this particular point, I would like to be brutally honest with you. God doesn’t care about you in that moment. I’m sorry to tell you that, but it really is true. On the Genesis 1:1 side of the chasm, it is NOT about you or I.

Have you ever heard people tell you, or say in your presence, that they don’t feel as if God cares about them? Or, perhaps they will tell you in one way or another that they know God doesn’t love them? Or, maybe you even feel that way, or have felt that way, before in your life?

If so, I can tell you two important things.

The first thing I can tell you is that you (or they) have, somehow, found yourself squarely in the middle of the Genesis 1:1 side of that dark chasm. And, the second and perhaps most important thing I can tell you, is that you are correct.

I’ll just bet you never heard anyone of Faith say that to you before, have you? Well, shame on them. When you find yourself in this place, you will know that what I am saying to you is completely true. Your feelings about the matter are of absolutely no consequence to God when you are on the Genesis 1:1 side of the chasm, friend. Your beliefs, nor your convictions, nor even your most deeply-held opinions matter not one single whit to God in that place. And, that is not a friendly place, at all. It is truly dark there. Smallest voices travel eternal distances in this place. You are concerned, or afraid; frightened and alone. And, God just doesn’t care one bit.

If you do not answer the question at all, or if you will NOT honestly answer it, you will remain on the Genesis 1:1 side of the Chasm—for a very, very long time. And, after a while, being there can become, if not comfortable, at least bearable. You may even know someone who has pitched a tent there.

You can dance around it, ignore it, evade it, lie about it, fool yourself into believing that you are, in fact, somewhere else--if you want. There will come a time when you realize that you have heard the question, and your honest answer is required—from your heart. You may even fool yourself into believing that you, somehow, have the ability to control the situation. We “of the belly button” are really good at that, you know. And in the final analysis you may, like so many before you (and I) have done, may see others come to, and go from, this place--while we don’t move at all.

* * * * *

The next time we chat, I’ll talk about the Chasm, what it is there for (therefore), and what you, or someone you may know, might just be able to do about being on that particular side of the Chasm.

I will tell you that you do not have to stay on the Genesis 1:1 side of the chasm. You can find one amazing way to breach that eternal depth, and land safely on the Genesis 1:3 side of it if you wish. What I will tell you is that, so long as you choose to remain on the Genesis 1:1 side of the chasm, there is no other verse in all of the Holy Bible that applies to you. That’s a pretty scary place to be. I’ve been there. I didn’t like it, but I made the most of it for a few years of my life.

If you want to know where the chasm is defined, it is in the Holy Bible, and you can read about it at Genesis 1:2. There is no humanly possible way to get across this vast darkness, friend. You just cannot do it. No matter how hard you try, or what resources you may employ, they will not work. It was specifically designed that way, believe it or not.

Is it truly possible that God does not care for anyone on the Genesis 1:1 side of the Chasm? It is not only possible, but God says so Himself.

Does God want to care? Very, very much. But, in this particular instance, God is still God. He is conditional. He asks a question, and we are compelled to respond honestly, from our hearts. His next (and every succeeding) action is entirely conditional upon the answer we give Him. That’s the way He works. Can God care about me, on that side of the Chasm? Nope. So, why would God put me there in the first place?

If it’s okay with you, we’ll talk about that next time. I’ll try to come back soon for another little chat. I hope you will pull up a stone, and talk with me again then, too.

In His Care,

Budroe