Is it a Sin to Question God?

     Being a youth pastor I have the privilege of constantly mentoring young people.  One of the joys of mentoring students is fielding their questions.  One young lady in particular asks very challenging yet amazing questions.  I love raw and real questions.  I also love being around people who are willing to ask tough questions.  Why do I love this so much?  Because, I refuse to give pat, churchy, rehearsed answers.  I make myself look to God's word for the source of my answers.  I must admit I don't always find neat and clean answers to every question, but I am willing to rest in that tension of searching but not always finding what I was looking for.
     Growing up in the church my entire life, one of the phrases I heard a lot was "Never Question God!"  It sounded to me like it was a sin to question God.  I always wondered why.  Because as I read the Bible it looked to me like great men and women of faith were constantly questioning God.  
     Because it is the Christmas season, I was recently studying Luke chapter 1 which begins the story of the birth of Christ.  Two characters in this true story are Zechariah and Mary and they have very similar experiences.  They both have angels appear to them and tell them that the impossible is going to happen: they are both going to have a baby.  Zechariah questions this because both he and his wife are very old and this seems impossible.  Mary questions this because she is a virgin and obviously having a baby as a virgin seems impossible to her!  
     But where their stories diverge is Zechariah is punished for his lack of faith by not being able to speak for 9 months until his wife gives birth.  After the angel answers Mary's question of how she will give birth as a virgin Mary's response is beautiful: "I am the Lord's servant.  May everything you have said about me come true."
     Mary still has a lot of questions.  How in the world do you explain to your family and fiancé that God made you pregnant.  Also not only was this an extremely awkward situation but dangerous as well.  In Mary's village women who became pregnant outside of marriage were killed.  Trust me.  Mary still had tons of questions as to how this would work, but she still responds to God with faith.
     In our lives, I don't think God is threatened or offended by our questions, but what he is waiting for is whether or not we will choose to have faith in him despite our questions.  So my encouragement to you is to continue to be willing to ask hard questions, but be courageous enough to have faith in the midst of those questions.