Eugene Peterson, a Presbyterian minister who teaches at Regent College in Vancouver, tells the story of wanting to discuss some feelings and energies he was having that he believed had to do with God. It was the summer after Peterson's second year of college. His first two attempts at finding someone who would listen to him didn't work out very well. Peterson tried talking to his pastor, but after about five minutes his pastor diagnosed Peterson's problem as having to do with sex and began a lengthy lecture on the subject. Peterson decided after a couple of meetings that it was his pastor who had a problem with sex, so he began to look elsewhere for someone with whom he could talk about the things he was experiencing and feeling. Then Peterson talked with a man who was considered a saint in his home congregation. This man decided that they should study and discuss Ephesians together, but as it turns out there was no discussion to it. The man simply used Peterson as an audience and lectured endlessly about Ephesians to the young boy.

Finally, Peterson encountered one who treated his God-interest and prayer-hunger with dignity. Instead of trying to shovel Peterson full of pious wisdom or viewing him as a "project," a man named Rueben Lance prayerfully listened to Peterson and all his hopes and fears, questions and feelings. Years later Peterson would write, "He let me be. He didn't mess with my soul. He treated me with dignity. I felt a large roominess in his company -- a spiritual roominess, room to move around, room to be free."

Questions aren't bad, but not allowing them to be asked is. Questions are a way of loving God with our minds. Through questions we reach and explore and gain a better understanding of important matters.