Why are questions so threatening?

In this episode, Jennie and Ryan talk about the very different lessons we learned about questions growing up. Jennie learned early that questioning could mean challenging authority, and that doing so might come with a cost. Ryan grew up almost on the opposite side of that, encouraged to question things and slow to realize that other people might experience my questions as threatening.

From there, we get into what questions can actually do. They make us look more closely at the stories, beliefs, relationships, and systems we inherited. And once we begin to really look, change becomes possible. That can be freeing, but it can also be deeply destabilizing.

We talk about Jennie’s experience growing up in conservative evangelicalism, Ryan's history of questioning authority, the ways those patterns have shown up in our marriage, and why lasting change seems to require more than simply deciding to think or behave differently.

Eventually we find ourselves asking what makes it possible to question and change without immediately becoming defensive or retreating into certainty. We come back to trust, curiosity, relationship, and the willingness to believe that another person might have something to teach us.

Maybe part of learning to live the questions is becoming open to being changed by our encounters with other human beings.

On Unfolding: Learning to Live the Questions is a conversation about faith, family, therapy, culture, and the stories that shape who we are and who we are becoming.

Learn more at https://theunfold.ing