“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” (Acts 8:30b-31a).

After reading about Philip and the Ethiopian this morning, I went for a walk and racked my brain to see if stashed in there were any memories of me coming upon someone who asked what a particular scripture meant.  

Blank. (Btw, Blank is how Connect Devotional writing usually begins!)

When a memory finally did come to me, it was of a time—the first of many times—that I was the one asking a question about Scripture.

In the few weeks I had been in grad school, I had encountered a lot of God-talk. Not all was Jesus God-talk, but since the Jesus God-talk called to me, I went to a Bible study in our dorm. I left that study with a headache! The twenty-plus people there knew the Bible so well! They lost me.  

But I kept going back. Between the studies, various combinations of us lingered over meals in the cafeteria, talking about Bible stuff. Afterwards I would head for my room to dig into more Bible stuff. The influence of their enthusiasm and the Holy Spirit’s prompting turned me into a Bible nerd. 

Philip was nothing if not enthusiastic about Jesus. (Jesus was obviously enthusiastic about Philip, too!)  So following the direction of an angel of the Lord he came upon the traveling Ethiopian who was puzzled by the scripture he was reading.

The title of the ‘90’s country song “Meet in the Middle” came to me during my brain-racking time. I thought about how eternal life has no beginning and no end, but a whole lot of middle. So that’s where God meets us—as He did the Ethiopian—in the middle of our journey, of our life experiences, of those racking-our-brain times.

In that middle we have God-questions. Asking a question is like opening a door to a friend (the answer) who has come to help out. Ask a group and you’re welcoming lots of friends (answers).

Unless we are question ask-ers, we won’t be the kind of question answer-ers who can meet another in the middle with rapport, respect and humility.   

Philip had undoubtedly asked plenty of questions during his “in the middle” days of life revolving around Jesus. What he learned in the middle, both by living and by asking questions, he could then recognize when he met the concept in Scripture. 

In this way he was ready to meet the Ethiopian in the middle of his quest and answer his question.

Reflect on how you have been influenced by someone who engaged with you in the middle of your Scripture questioning. 

Reflect on how asking questions of your own has helped you humbly and respectfully meet others in the middle of their Scripture questioning.