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Mar 22, 2023 18:30pm

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask

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The conversation carried on around me. I listened and nodded my head. I had gotten pretty good at appearing as though I knew what they were talking about. Directors, doctors and higher-ups discussed strategic plans, theories and ideas, statistics and data, and I took notes. I jotted down words I didn’t understand and promised myself I would look them up. They had an acronym for everything, but I was too afraid to ask.

Why?

For me, it was pride. Not only did I not want to come across as dumb, deep down, I wanted their admiration. I wanted to be included. I wanted to be thought well of and entrusted because of my ability. In fact, I had gotten so good at pretending to know, one doctor was explaining to me about my father’s heart surgery and he stopped mid-sentence and said, “well I don’t have to explain this to you, you already know.” I was shocked honestly and didn’t know how to respond. What did I know about heart surgery? In that moment, I had to let go of my pride and admit that in fact I didn’t know and I would be grateful if he would take the time to explain it. I did not want to miss the opportunity to gain understanding about what was happening with my father.

“And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it. For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.” (Mark 9:30-32)

Jesus was speaking of His death that was soon to come. Be He also shared again that He would rise again. The disciples couldn’t understand what the Lord meant. How would He rise again? Would He really die? Would His resurrection be the time that He defeats Rome and rescues the Jews? I’m sure the questions swirled in their minds, but the scripture says they were afraid to ask.

Why?

Perhaps for them it was much like me – pride. Even though Jesus was their friend and their teacher, maybe they were afraid of what He would think of them. Remember, in the last passage, Jesus had said, “oh faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?”.

These were Jesus’ disciples. They were supposed to be the closest to Him. They should be the ones with the greatest faith. They should be the ones who understood, right?

But they didn’t ask.

Is this us? What if we are missing out on a great deal of understanding and closeness with God because of our pride?

If you want a deeper relationship with the Lord, ask the questions. Don’t settle for someone telling you “That’s just the way it is”. Read it for yourself. Study it. Ask questions and search out the answers. Let the Holy Spirit guide you as you discover more and more. And yes, your questions will lead to more questions! But that’s how we get real answers.

Don’t be afraid to ask. You could miss out on the best understanding of the Father.