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The Well Placed Question
Good Questions Help Everyone
“Someone will study postmodernism and theology. Who will serve the poor?”
The question that changed the trajectory of my life was simple. “Who will serve the poor?” would not mean the same thing the first time I met Dr. Pabarcus, nor would it have meant something outside of our conversation about seminary and the nature of the church in the USA. When and where his question was placed was not so simple.
And that is what made it a well placed question.
Think back to a question that froze your heart, stopped your breathing, and rattled your mind. Great questions friends pose to one another force us reframe ourselves and our context to think differently. Light spills through a crack in a door that we did not yet perceive and life now has new options.
Well placed questions are grow the friend asking the question and the friend receiving the question.
The Asker reaches through his own emotions and ideas and makes a non judging question. The non judgmental part is huge because he is communicating acceptance no matter how the friend answers. Every time we ask a great question we grow into a person who cares and in expressing wisdom to look deep.
The Receiver is forced to think, create, and change because of the well placed question. He must reconsider what he knows in one moment, examine the box of his thoughts, and decide how to grow the box. His actions change to follow new beliefs and he grows into a more complete person.