What has the creative potential to uncover buried knowledge, explore vast frontiers, and develop new technologies, yet is also destructive enough to wreck a person or to even doom the world? A question.

We ask questions when we need to solve a problem. We ask questions to start a discussion. We ask questions when we want to discover the truth. Questions can uncover, clarify, stimulate, investigate, open up, tease apart, assess, reveal, build, reflect on, and look ahead. Questions use single-syllable words to push back the veil of ignorance and begin moving toward knowledge. How? What? Why? Who? When? This single piece of punctuation holds the power to transform ourselves and our world.

Questions build relationships. They show our interest in others and help us better understand them. Every human is a complex creature created by God for relationship with Him and with other humans. A fundamental desire of every person is to know and be known as a unique individual that has worth. Questions help us access and know a heart that would otherwise remain hidden and safe.

We often do a poor job using questions to connect with others. We ask, “How are you doing?” But we really aren’t asking that. Instead, we are simply acknowledging their presence without expecting to actually engage with the eternal being with whom we are conversing. That same question, when asked in sincerity and in the context of trust, can be an opportunity to know a person’s struggles, victories, and desires. When questions peel back layers of obscuration built up from years of shallow or destructive relationships to reveal who someone truly is, we hold a precious and tender gift. We must be sure we don’t betray that trust.

Questions have brought us almost everything we have, but a question also took away all that we could have had. “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Gen 3:1b) Satan used this question to plant a seed of doubt in the mind of Eve. This doubt sprouted and grew into a proud and selfish attitude that led to disobedience. A single question, used for evil intent, doomed humanity to a sinful and imperfect world.

Because of their power, questions can cause great harm. They can be used to absolve oneself of responsibility. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” “Who is my neighbor?” Questions can be used to belittle others by point out their weakness or ignorance. They can be used to interrogate instead of seeking to gain understanding. They can also be used to manipulate, intimidate, deceive, and provoke.

It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword. Perhaps this is true because words can access and change a man’s heart, while violence can only change his actions. A man can be imprisoned for decades, yet still cling to the beliefs that put him in prison.

When Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel, he was cared for by an angel. Then he went to a mountain and stood before the Lord. There was a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire, and yet the Lord not in any of them. Then came a still, small voice, and that was the Lord. The most powerful being in the universe spoke to Elijah, not with a booming voice that could destroy planets with a word, but as a quiet voice.

As beings created in the image of God, we have been given the ability to communicate with others. This gift can be used to belittle and destroy, or it can be used to reveal, heal, and rebuild. What will you do with this blessing?

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

James 3:1-5 ESV