Curious

Do you wonder all the time?

Are there things that spark your curiosity, and make you go hmmm?

I remember reading Curious George books when I was a child. I would sing about the curious little monkey and all the trouble he got into.

Is curiosity just a recipe for trouble? They say it killed the cat.

But where would we be without curiosity? We likely wouldn’t have space travel and light bulbs and be missing out on a lot of history. All because someone was curious enough to find out.

Does curiosity have a role in our faith as well? Does curiosity undergird your faith, or knock it down?

When I was little, it felt like God was too big or too busy for all of my questions. I shouldn’t be questioning God too much right? Those questions might look like doubt and then that meant my faith wasn’t strong.

But perhaps, curiosity is one of the elements of awe that if learn how to use it, can transform our faith into technicolor.

When we are talking about curiosity here, it isn’t just wanting to do a quick internet search. This is a deep dive. This kind of curiosity is what Monica Parker calls “wondrous curiosity.” Scott Shiegeoka, author of Seek, believes that curiosity can be a source for meaningful connection and transformation. These benefits include things like:

“-challenging our assumptions and biases

-providing an antidote to fear and anxiety

-embracing uncertainty with more courage

-deepening connections in an era of social isolation and exclusion

-become more intentional and thoughtful

-sharpening our creativity and collaboration skills

-finding common ground with others who have opposing views or differences

-movingthrough hard times in our life

-building self awareness and being kinder to ourselves”

Did you know that curiosity could do all of that? That seeking to know more and asking questions and a thirst for learning could result in this way. According to Monica Parker, there is a science to curiosity in that it induces the same kind of dopamine reaction in the same part of the brain as romantic love. I guess that is why we call it a love of learning.

In order to truly be seeking or wondering to a deeper level, Shigeoka says we need to develop an inner curiosity (what makes me tick), outer curiosity (what makes others tick) and an outer curiosity (connection with something bigger than just us).

According to the ancient poets and wisdom writers, we are meant to be curious from the inside out, to search for the truth, to incline our ear to wisdom, to stretch our ears towards understanding, and to dig for it like it is a buried treasure. Jesus also tells us in Matthew 7 to ask, search, and knock. And what is the result of all this seeking, all this holy curiosity as Master Eickhart called it? Proverbs 2:4 says “if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures- then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” The Voice translation says, “Then you will grasp what it means to truly respect the Eternal, and you will have discovered the knowledge of the one True God.”

How often do we settle for surface curiosity at the expense of the deep knowledge of God? How often do we treat the news feed as the gospel and miss out on the treasures of

-choosing media over Messiah, gossip over the Great I Am, Sound Bytes over the bread of Heaven.

How would it change our interactions with others and with the world if we were more curious?

There is a scene in Ted Lasso in which he ends is playing a game of darts. For the first bit of the game, he wasn’t really winning. He looked at his opponent and said, “You know Rupert, guys have been underestimating me my entire life. And for years I never understood why. It used to really bother me. Then one day I was driving my little boy to school, and I saw a quote by Walt Whitman, it was painted on the wall there and it said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ I like that.” (Ted throws a dart.)

“So, I get back in my car and I’m driving to work and all of a sudden it hits me – all them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them was curious. You know, they thought they had everything all figured out, so they judged everything, and they judged everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me – who I was had nothing to do with it. Because if they were curious, they would’ve asked questions. Questions like, ‘Have you played a lot of darts, Ted?’” (Ted throws another dart.)

“To which I would have answered, ‘Yes sir. Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from age ten until I was 16 when he passed away.’ Barbecue sauce.” (Ted throws a double bullseye to win the game.)

You see in the beginning of the game, Ted’s opponent Rupert had asked “Do you like darts, Ted?” It was a yes or no question. Not a question of deep curiosity, wanting to know more.

Rupert had made a snap judgment, assuming Ted was inexperienced when really Ted was a novice the whole time.

Do you wonder all the time? How often do you wonder about those around you?

On one of my RIM retreats, we were put into random 1:1 breakout rooms where we had to do an exercise where we would look at the other person and simply wonder about them. I remember looking at the person and wondering about them. At first it seemed silly and boring after an all-day Zoom retreat. It wasn’t their job to answer any of my curiosity or to help me along. They were to sit and receive. While at first I skimmed the surface, pretty soon I was deep diving in wonder about this beautiful face in front of me.

I wonder what they hope for?

I wonder what they are waiting on?

I wonder what worries they have?

I wonder when they get the giggles?

I wonder if they know how loved they are?

Be Curious

David Pearl was curious about what might happen if we combine our wondering and our wandering. In 2013 in London he launched Street Wisdom, which leads walkshops in helping others discover answers by walking along the streets. Now Street Wisdom is a nonprofit found in forty countries form Kenya to Croatia.

The key is you begin with a question and you wander with it as you walk, allowing your answer to ruminate or bubble up if you get an answer. It is a path for curiosity. Have you ever taken a walk to think through something and noticed something along the way that seemed especially for you and your own question. That is the sense behind Street Wisdom.

Jesus modeled deep curiosity, asking hundreds of wondrously curious questions like “What do you seek?” (John 1:38), “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15) “Why do you call me Lord Lord?” (Luke 6:46) “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:35-52) “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11), and “Do you love me?” (John 21:17) to name a few.

Too often we think we can’t question God when the Son of God had plenty of questions. Jesus isn’t a busy body. Jesus wants transformation for you, and knows that this kind of transformation only comes when you seek to draw near to the presence of God. This past Wednesday in Confirmation Bro. Chris was teaching on the Trinity, a concept that we can kinda explain but barely understand and the confirmands had some fantastic questions. One wanted to know if heaven was unoccupied when Jesus was on earth. Another wanted to know if the wicked will inherit the earth.

Are there questions you have that you haven’t taken time to really ask? What would you ask in a space where you really felt you could ask anything?

Isaiah 55:8-9 says “My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways. . . . As high as the heavens are from the earth so are my thoughts above your thoughts.” Holy curiosity isn’t about being a know-it all and it certainly isn’t about having God all figured out. It is about cultivating a seeking spirit that is grounded in humility. Richard Rohr says this is the difference between “discovering” and “having.” A discerning and inquiring spirit will make us discoverers in touch with our hidden unconscious and the deeper truth. A glib “I have the answers” spirit makes us into protectors of clichés.”

Think about how you felt when you first started really following Jesus? Can you remember? What did it feel like and look like? Do you still have that same passion, that same thirst, that same curiosity? The United Methodists have long had a commitment to this sense of curiosity and wondering within our tagline: open minds, open hearts, and open doors.

The late Rachel Held Evans said “most of the openhearted wanderers I’ve encountered...are looking not for a bulletproof belief system but for a community of friends, not for a spiritual encyclopedia that contains every answer but for a gathering of loved ones in which they can ask the hard questions.”

So can we be a kid again in our faith once more? To ask the questions. To be a beginner each day. To wonder all the time.