We can hold our questions against God, or we can let them bring us close to Him.
Consider Jordan Mecham.* He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he hasn't been to church in many years. He had questions he told us-serious questions. We asked for a list. He presented a page of crude YouTube-informed misinformation.
Jordan wields a question like a sword, to thwart any truths that might disturb his easy lifestyle or convict his past. We can answer Jordan all day long, and our answers will never suffice. He doesn't want an answer, so he'll never have an answer. He is mad at God for this mess on earth, but he'll never ask God what's really going on down here.
Ching* is a different story. When we introduced the Plan of Salvation to our Vietnamese pathologist friend, she had never even heard of Jesus Christ. She listened intently, then leaned forward and said, "But what is the meaning? I've lived my whole life without hearing of this, and I'm happy. What difference does it make?"
Ching is like a great funnel, just waiting to receive truth and sift through it until she finds a nugget of wisdom worth keeping. Her questions are serious. She asks about gay marriage. She asks about the Atonement. She wants to know how these things will influence her life.
But just as with Jordan, we can answer her questions all day long and our answers will never suffice. There's a language barrier and an intelligence gap. We're just twenty-something-year-old girls hefting around really tremendous truths. But Ching will ask God. She will have her answers because she wants an answer.
The difference between Ching and Jordan is what they do with their questions. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you; knock, and it will be opened," pleads God. Every time we teach a lesson, we beg our investigators to seek answers from God. Don't take our word for it. "I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true. And if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moroni 9:4-5)
A question may be a stumbling stone or a stepping block. It all depends on what we choose to do with it.
*Names have been changed.
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