What is your why?
That is the question Bishop Stacie Fidlar posed to those gathered at last year’s Synod Assembly. It is the question that has guided the synod staff as we live into our theme of Going Deeper: Naming, Claiming, Proclaiming—not just for this year, but for the next three.
It is a simple question, yet it is one that invites us to go deeper. Asking why invites curiosity about what it means to be the church here and now. It pushes us to reflect on what truly matters to us and how we respond to the needs of the world around us. It invites us into difficult conversations about faith, justice, and community.
Sometimes that question leads us into uncomfortable spaces. But when we trust the Spirit’s movement, our why can be enough to say yes to whatever God is calling us toward.
Over the past year, as a member of the synod staff, I have seen this question spark new imagination in congregations. And I have also seen the moments when the question feels harder to ask—when the answer might lead somewhere no one really wants to go.
Still, the beauty of this question is that it leads to more questions. Some are easy. Others are not. But each question invites us to go deeper into who we are and whose we are.
I have always loved questions. As a child, I asked them constantly. My curiosity rarely stopped with the first answer. Even now, I often ask questions I know may not have easy answers.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why do systems remain broken?
Why do people choose to hate over love?
The harder the question, the less likely it is to have a clear answer. Yet those questions keep returning as I try to see the world through the lens of being a beloved child of God.
Lately, my questions have been focused on the life of the church as we navigate an ever-polarized society.
Why are congregations becoming spaces of hostile community?
Why are worship numbers declining in so many places?
Why are congregations facing painful decisions about budgets, staffing, and programs?
These are not questions we carry alone. Congregations across our church—and across many denominations—are asking the same things. Leaders are making difficult decisions while also caring deeply for the people entrusted to them.
These are questions are making us weary. These questions are what keep us up at night. These questions are why the questions in John’s Gospel for today caught my attention.
In the story from the Gospel of John, the disciples encounter a man born blind and ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
They want an explanation. They want to understand the problem so they can make sense of it. They want to know what they need to do to avoid this happening to their loved ones.
Rather than focusing on blame, Jesus invites them to understand what is happening differently. He heals the man, turning ordinary mud and water into instruments of grace.
Yet the deeper moment comes afterward. The religious leaders interrogate the man who was healed. They want answers. They want to understand how this happened and whether it fits their expectations.
But the man does not offer a complicated explanation. He grows more and more confident in his answers as he proclaims who God is in a way that shows he doesn’t need to have all the answers to understand that what has happened because of who God is.
Going deeper in faith looks like that.
It means naming what is true, even when we cannot explain everything. It means claiming the ways we have seen God at work in our lives and communities. And it means proclaiming that truth to the world, even when others remain skeptical.
Like the disciples, we will continue to face questions that challenge us. Like the religious leaders, we may sometimes feel uncomfortable with the answers we hear.
But the invitation remains.
We can choose curiosity instead of fear. We can allow our questions to open us to God’s work rather than close us off from it.
When we do, we begin to see our neighbors differently—not as problems to solve, but as beloved children of God.
And in that deeper vision, we may discover new ways to live out our calling together: loving Christ, loving all, for the sake of the world.
