This year the Lord is pressing upon me the importance of being curious. Sounds easy right? Toddlers do it all the time. They are curious critters. They touch what they are intrigued by. They ask WHY dozens of times until they have a greater understanding of the object of their curiosity. As we mature, it seems our curiosity dries up a bit.
My curiosity actually journey began a couple years ago after observing how uncurious social media posts can be. So many were opinions rendered without compassion or curiosity. I began to feel tempted to jump to conclusions rather than looking for clues about another person’s perspective. I’ve been on the other side of a narrative being placed upon me and wished there had been curiosity rather than jumping into conclusions. I have also been the person with a confirmed opinion that might have felt like a judgmental conclusion to someone else. I wanted to do better.
Let me be clear here… I am not talking about the essentials of our faith and the things the Lord has formed in you through conviction by Biblical teaching, Bible study, prayer and meditation. Of that we can have assurance of the essentials and awareness of what we are learning season to season in our lives. The curiosity I was pursuing were in less essential, though important, discussions happening in our family, church, country and online.
This week our country watched Super Bowl 59. My Monday morning feed was not so much filled with Monday morning quarterbacking about the teams as it was about the halftime show. I am not going to give you my perspective here. But, I use this as an example of very divided and strong opinions I saw online. I decided to do some research (exercise my curiosity) to try to understand any potential deeper meanings beyond the performance. It removed some of the conclusions I was leaning toward.
There are hundreds (thousands) of non-essential discussions that I can enter with curiosity and never lose my convictions or perspective. When I started looking for clues with curiosity, I found myself inwardly asking “wow, this is really important to them. I wonder why? What has their life opened them up to that would cause their passion, anger, determinations? (You fill in the blank here for the situation you’re currently thinking about). We draw conclusions by reading words spoken, facial expressions, tone of voice and body language. These can all be good clues, but rarely a license for jumping to conclusions.
This is also a good time to become an observer of yourself. I am getting in the habit when I feel urked by someone else’s behavior to become curious about myself. Why is this bugging me? What is making me feel like distancing myself from this person? How am I making someone else in my life feel something similar? When I become curious about myself, I find increased compassion for others. This helps me from jumping to judgmental conclusions. Proverbs 4:7 says “get wisdom and understanding”. I sense God bringing this scripture alive for me through cultivating curiosity.
What about you? What situation, group, relationship or discussion could benefit from a healthy dose of curiosity that will lead to clues rather than conclusions?
