April 15, 2026

Today I return to Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attend the biennial Festival of Faith & Writing. I thoroughly enjoyed the festival two years ago and look forward to hearing from some great writers and thinkers of faith in the coming days.

Perhaps my greatest joy in attending events such as this is to hear great questions. Two years ago, the writer Yaa Gyasi asked the question, “Maybe God is a question?” Questions, for me, stir the creative juices and open up possibilities for the future.

Some of the great lines in scripture are questions. Moses asks God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is [God’s] name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13) Yes! How would we “name” a God that sends us? God asks Job the question, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2) And then there is Jesus’ question to the disciples, which are Jesus’ first spoken words in the Gospel of John: “What are you looking for?” (John 1:38)

The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote the following words to a young poet: “Live the questions now.” And I would add: ask the questions now. It seems as though our current world is full of certainty while ignoring the pain and suffering that surrounds us all the time. Perhaps a good question asked today can bring an answer that relieves the suffering of another person.

Rev. Eric