God Doesn't Shame Us For Our Questions (DI2)
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Zootopia
Zootopia
Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen the movie Zootopia?
If you haven’t let me fill you in, because I want to share a clip from the movie. Judy Hopps is a rabbit - she is the first rabbit to ever join the police force of Zootopia. It’s not an easy job, but Judy is committed to solving a mysterious case where formerly intelligent animals seem to be turning “savage.” Watch what happens when Judy makes a big break in the case.
INSERT VIDEO CLIP FROM ZOOTOPIA
Judy discovered an important clue in the case, but she struggles to convince her boss about what she’s found. Somehow, her evidence has gone missing.
If you’ve seen the movie, you know that we, as the viewers, are meant to side with Judy because we’ve seen the same evidence she has. But in real life, I understand where Chief Bogo is coming from. Evidence is important. I think we can all relate to how Judy felt there in some way or another.
Has something similar ever happened to you? I remember quite a few years ago, my parents were having some serious trouble with their car radio. Every time they turned it on, it would sound great…for a few minutes. Then randomly, their radio would have these fits of white noise and scratchiness that made it awful to listen to their music. So of course, they took it in to the shop to show the technicians there what the problem was and see if they could fix it. Naturally, with the car sitting right there, the technician starts it and plays the radio, then waits a few minutes to see if the static showed up. As life would have it, the radio played great with zero issues. So my parents had him take the car for a drive through the neighborhood to see if they could get it to misbehave again. Of course it played beautifully. The tech guys were struggling to see the issue or even believe there was one. So eventually my parents took the car back and assumed the issue was fixed.
As we were driving away from the shop, on our way back home, the radio started misbehaving again. Of course it did. Moral of the story is that the people from the shop would not fix my parent’s car until they had some evidence that something was actually wrong with the radio. They needed to see the actual evidence. And they eventually did, as my parents had to video tape their radio acting wonky and show that to the techs.
The point is that it is reasonable to want evidence.
Can you think of a scenario where you’d want to see evidence before making a decision or judgement?
What’s a time that you’d be willing to believe someone without seeing all the evidence?
Is it okay to want or ask God for evidence before we believe or obey Him? Why or why not?
Faith Isn’t Blind
Faith Isn’t Blind
In nearly every area of our lives, investigating and fact-checking others’ claims is not only reasonable, it’s celebrated! But when it comes to our faith, asking for evidence, investigating, and fact-checking is sometimes looked down upon or even shamed. Some people talk about faith in God as if “faith” means “blind trust.” I don’t disagree but I also don’t agree 100%. See, having faith in God doesn’t mean we can’t also have evidence that supports what we believe. The two things are not mutually exclusive.
Last session we talked about how you are not alone in your questions. Now we are going to dive a bit deeper and talk about how God responds when people ask for evidence before believing.
Gideon
Gideon
Let’s talk about a guy named Gideon. We are first introduced to Gideon in Judges chapter 6. At the time of Gideon, the Israelites were suffering under the oppression of a nation called Midian. They were frustrated, afraid, and desperate for God to send someone to help them out. They cried out to God for help, and eventually God sent an angel to Gideon to say that God was still with Israel…but Gideon had a few questions in response to that.
read
In verses 12-14, what did Gideon ask? What was the response?
In verses 15-16, what did Gideon ask? What was the response?
In verses 17 and 21, what did Gideon ask? What was the response?
In verses 36-38, what did Gideon ask God to do? How did God respond?
In verses 39-40, what did Gideon ask God to do? How did God respond?
In this story, Gideon questions and asks God for proof not once. Not twice, but FIVE TIMES before he is convinced. This story could come as a shock to you if you’ve ever been told or have felt that:
If you had faith, you wouldn’t need to ask God for proof of anything
That asking God for answers or evidence means you’re lacking faith.
That it’s wrong or shameful to questions God.
That questioning God makes you less Christian
If that’s what you’ve been told, you might see Gideon’s behavior here as embarrassing or shameful.