The More Beautiful Question

American poet, painter, essayist, and playwright e. e. cummings famously wrote, “Always the beautiful answer who asks the more beautiful question.” I keep this quotation framed on my desk because it’s something I want to never forget. In parenting, pastoring, coaching, and flight instructing I have found this to be, if not always easy, true. Ask the more beautiful question—the question that sparks the imagination or gets to the heart of a matter at hand—and the beautiful answer inevitably comes.

Jesus was the master of the more beautiful question. In this week’s Gospel reading when two of John's disciples turn from him and begin following Jesus, he wheels around on them and asks them the question that’s at the heart of why every person with agency does everything they do, or nearly so. It’s why kids misbehave, and why adults often make great sacrifices…or don’t.

It’s a question so basic you might read the passage a hundred times and miss its significance. But it’s also a question so profound that it’s the heart of Christian discipleship.