Home Outreach Leaders Three Reasons Every Christian Should Cultivate Curiosity

Three Reasons Every Christian Should Cultivate Curiosity

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t speak boldly and clearly about the saving message of Jesus or important points of Christian doctrine. Jesus did that too. But don’t allow the tension of uncertainty to lead you toward fundamentalism. Allow your questions to enable your curiosity to blossom as you pursue more satisfying answers that will ultimately be even more faithful to scripture than our canned, Sunday school, jargon laden answers.

2. Pursuing Your Questions Will Not Only Lead You on a Path to Discovering Truths About the World but Also to Unearth Truths Within You.

The act of asking questions is a transformative process. When you ask questions, you begin to unearth not only the things you didn’t know about the world around you, but things you didn’t even know about yourself.

As you are presented with the discomfort of uncertainty, learn to question your discomfort. Explore your unknown biases, beliefs, and values that are a source of anxiety when questioned. Why is it that you think and feel the things you do? Is it because you have arrived at them through an exploration of the possible options? Or is it because you have accepted truths without thinking about them, and now you fear how your worldview may crumple like a house of cards if any of those assumptions are questioned?

If God’s truth really is eternal and immutable, it can handle the prodding of our questions as to its veracity. If we chase our curiosity down the rabbit hole, we will discover one of two things. Either we will have a firmer foundation of confidence in the beliefs we hold, or we will learn that what we have believed is more informed by our experience and culture than it is God’s word of truth. Either way, the process is transforming us.

To repeat a cliché, life is more about the journey than it is the destination. And if our eternal destination is sure in Christ Jesus, it’s good to stray from the path we’re on in search of a path that is more closely aligned with God’s purposes for our lives.

3. God Created the World With Built-in Opportunities for Wonder.

When you look at the poetry of Scripture, so much of it is filled with wonder. They were enthralled by the stars in the sky, the strength of the ocean’s waves, the rain that caused plants to grow, and enraptured with the idea that God is steadfast in his love for us even when we’re not.

If you’re anything like me, you sometimes find such a simple sense of wonder to be somewhat naive. But that isn’t wisdom speaking. It’s cynicism. It’s a loss of the wonder that God created in this world for you to enjoy.

When you begin to accept how much there is that you don’t know or understand, you begin to realize exactly how small and finite you are. You begin to gain a scope for how much there is left for you to discover. A life lived in pursuit of curiosity will never grow tired of new insights in familiar settings, or old insights discovered in new environments.