Last year’s graduation speaker at Breck School encouraged the graduates to “live the questions.” This much loved, long tenured, soon to be retired English teacher suggested that either moving too quickly toward easy answers or being unwilling to wrestle with ambiguities would be very seductive.
The Breck Chaplains, like many of us who were present, were so inspired by the speech they decided to make it the theme for this year’s chapel services. And I have had the good fortune to engage both all school chapel and the lower and middle school chapels in “living the questions.”
Practically speaking, what this has meant has been for me to face a barrage of questions such as:
“Why is there suffering?”
“Who created God?”
“Does God answer our prayers?”
“What happens when you die?”
This past weekend the Chaplains and I gathered together with the Breck Board of Trustees on retreat at the Episcopal House of Prayer and spent an entire evening “living the questions.”
In a very open, non-judgmental environment we wrestled with some of life’s biggest questions. With folks from a variety of backgrounds and religious perspectives it was fascinating to hear, ponder and discuss what the students have been doing all year long.
What a great learning experience for our young people. What a great opportunity for all of us. There is still time in Lent…make it part of your Lenten discipline to gather together with your family, friends, co-workers and in a respectful environment “live the questions.”
I’m rather fond of this answer, learned through the hard and tough questions of life: