Ask the Right Questions

Read

Nehemiah 1:1-4 “The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, ‘Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.’ When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”

Think

I was at a leadership symposium near Lake Michigan a number of years ago. Great leaders from all over the country. Sharp minds, big organizations, impressive résumés. During a panel discussion, somebody turned to me and asked, "Ed, what books are you reading right now?" And I gave an answer that got a few laughs and a lot of raised eyebrows. I said, "I don't read that much. I ask questions."

That was not false modesty. It was the truth. I have always learned more from asking the right question than from reading the right chapter. Books are valuable. I am not dismissing them. But there is something about a well-placed question that opens a door no book can open. A question puts you in the room with someone else's experience. A question reveals what a person knows, what they fear, what they have been through. A question says, "I don't have all the answers, and I'm fine with that."

Nehemiah understood this. Look at the opening scene of this book. Nehemiah is in Susa, living in the citadel, serving as cupbearer to the king of Persia. He has a comfortable position, a reliable paycheck, proximity to power. And then his brother Hanani shows up with some other men from Judah. What does Nehemiah do? He questions them. The text says it plainly: "I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem."

He did not wait for a report. He did not scroll through the ancient equivalent of a newsfeed. He pulled people aside and asked. That is the first law of leadership: investigation. Leaders investigate before they initiate. They ask before they act. They learn the landscape before they plant the flag.

And notice what happened when Nehemiah got his answer. The news was devastating. The wall of Jerusalem was broken down. The gates had been burned with fire. The people were in great trouble and disgrace. Nehemiah's response was immediate and visceral: "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven." He did not run to the king with a proposal. He did not draft a strategic plan. He wept. He fasted. He prayed. The information he gathered through asking led him straight into the presence of God.

Here is what I have noticed over thirty-plus years of ministry. The best leaders are not the ones with the most answers. They are the ones with the most questions. I call it A.S.K.: Always Seeking Knowledge. Not knowledge for knowledge's sake, but knowledge that leads to action. Nehemiah did not ask idle questions. He asked questions that broke his heart. And a broken heart is the starting line for everything God wants to do in your life.

My dad used to have this old Lincoln Continental. Big car, bench seat, smelled like leather. And he kept a set of jumper cables in the trunk. One day he showed me how they worked. He said, "Son, you have to connect positive to positive and negative to negative. If you put the negative cable on the positive terminal, the whole thing can explode." That image stuck with me. Because that is what happens when you surround yourself with the wrong people. When you connect to negativity, the whole thing blows up. But when you connect positive to positive, the power flows and the engine starts.

Nehemiah connected positive to positive. He asked the right people the right questions, and the answer, painful as it was, gave him the charge he needed to act. Think about the progression: He to Me to We to They.

It starts with God. He.

Then it moves to the individual. Me. “God, what do you want me to do with this information?”

Then it expands to the team. We. “Who is going to help me?”

And finally it reaches the community. They. The people who will be impacted by what God starts in a single conversation.

That is how it always works. Every movement of God in Scripture started with someone asking the right question. Moses at the burning bush: "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?" Gideon on the threshing floor: "If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened?" Mary at the annunciation: "How will this be?" The question was the doorway. The answer was the assignment.

You might be reading this today in a comfortable place. A stable job. A good routine. A reliable life. And somewhere in the back of your mind, there is a question you have been avoiding. A question about your marriage, your calling, your community, your walk with God. Maybe it is a question you are afraid to ask because you already suspect the answer will cost you something. Nehemiah's question cost him everything. He left the citadel. He left the comfort. He left the king's table. But the question that started it all also started the rebuilding. The question was the first brick in a wall that would change a nation.

I did not read that much at the leadership symposium. But I asked a lot of questions. And the answers I got that weekend shaped decisions I made for the next decade. Never underestimate the power of the right question asked at the right time. Nehemiah's question led to weeping. The weeping led to prayer. The prayer led to action. And the action led to rebuilding a wall.

Apply

Ask before you act – Identify one area of your life where you have been making assumptions instead of asking questions. Go to a trusted friend, a mentor, or God himself and ask the hard question you have been avoiding. Let the answer lead you to prayer.

Pray

Father, I confess that I often act before I ask. I move forward on assumptions instead of seeking your direction. Give me the courage to ask the hard questions and the humility to sit with the answers, even when they break my heart. Lead me from investigation to action, just as you led Nehemiah. In Jesus' name. Amen.