You know the hosting website for this blog asks questions. Sometimes, they’re pretty dumb, but other times… Today’s site prompt is: What could you do differently?

That’s a terrific one, because the way we answer speaks volumes about who we really are. What if your answer is, “nothing at all?” Think about everything that level of arrogance says. Is it arrogance OR maybe contentment and acceptance. How about, “I’ve never thought about it before?” Or, “I could floss in the mornings?” “I’d like to tell my kids I love them.” “Maybe go a new way to work?” “Read a novel.” “Go to church (or the gym or the school board meeting.)” Great question, right?

Are we answering what we could do differently? That question is endless, we could literally do everything differently. Sleep on the other side of the bed, eat with our left hand, slide down handrails. Or are we answering what we should do differently? which is a totally different thing they’re asking. I wonder how the AI prompt generator meant it. Mostly, I wonder how we read it, but of course I would wonder that. It’s a variation of the topic of the last 2 Sunday mornings. What now? Who are you? Who do you want to be? How do we get there? How do we “prepare the horses,” or “build the house?” Are our relationships, jobs, whatever – are our lives what we want them to be, based on our own Divine creation? And what could we do differently?

Are we loving our neighbors? We could probably do that differently. Are we caring for our marriages & families in ways they understand and receive? We can always do that differently. Our answers are as unique as we are. After service on Sunday, a very good friend who is a brilliant woman was asking what kind of hose she is. (The message discussed being conduits, being hoses, for the love of God to travel through.) Was she a soaker? A sprinkler? Think about all the kinds of hoses and flows. Which one are we, today? Which one will we be tomorrow? Could we be a different kind of hose? Are we even a hose at all?

Questions are so much fun. Lives are so rarely transformed by a scolding, or even a directive. Do this. Do that. You know what you should do or what you should think or who you should vote for??? We usually unplug right about then, and start looking around for somewhere else to be. But a question, that’s an invitation that gives us the chance to consider, to hold the strong, lovely, wise hand of Jesus and walk into dark spaces we might not have gone otherwise.

Jesus asks a blind man, “What do you want Me to do for you?” I wonder what I want Him to do for me? Jesus, what do You want to do for me? What do I want? Is that what I really want? Is that what would bring me joy & peace? Jesus, what could I do differently? His question opens the door into all sorts of new questions, new opportunities to know ourselves, to know Him, to trust. To know what to do, and discover the courage to do it. To love.

And then, well, that’s the tricky part, we listen. Now that I think about it, it’s how I’d answer the site prompt: I would listen.