Why?

Let me ask you a question - an onion question. Huh? What's an onion guestion? Glad you asked. An onion question is a question where the answer never seems to stop. The more you pull back layers, the deeper you get into the answer, the better and more fulfilling it becomes. This reminds me of the movie "Shrek," where Shrek and Donkey are on their way to rescue the princess and the onion topic comes up - "Ogres are like onions!"

So here's the question: when it comes to faith, religion, spirituality, the Bible, why do you believe what you believe? Where do you get your frame of reference? Where do you get your conclusions? Where do you get your answers to questions? I LOVE to ask "why?" when I am having a spiritually-based conversation with a student or am teaching in a class. I could ask why four or five times in a row. And it's so much fun for me to see students pull back the layers and slowly discover their own faith.

Too often we let ourselves (and our kids) own a faith that isn't theirs. We use rhetoric that we're comfortable with to teach others our beliefs and we seem to miss the step where we help them to own the beliefs for their self. I think this, more than anything else, is the reason that we lose "churched" kids when the get older - and especially when they go off to college, move out, etc.

So next time you're sitting in a bible class and the teacher says something you've heard a hundred times (or more) ask why. Then keep asking and answering "why" another three or four times and you'll start to get to center of the onion.

God Loves You!