My third book, The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life releases today. I think it is the book I am most proud of (and relieved to be done with) because it was the most challenging to write. The challenge stemmed both from the season of life during which I wrote it as well as the content itself. Curiosity is a nebulous thing to which most of us don’t give much focused, concrete thought. For that reason it is something we lack and don;t even realize we lack.
Most of us just aren’t very curious about very many things, and the results are striking . . . if you are curious enough to look for them.
A lack of curiosity undermines our spiritual lives and faith. Without it we decided that we know enough of God without over considering his magnificent infinity and the endless opportunity to discover more of Him
A lack of curiosity beaks down relationships with friends, co-workers, and loved ones. It leads to selfishness, thoughtlessness, disinterest, distance, and even abandonment
A lack of curiosity is a huge reason we have such political division in our country. We fall to ask honest, humble questions and to listen. We create a partisan rigidity that refuses to see and explore the complexity of many issues and work through them to a common good.
A lack of curiosity contributes hugely to the racial tensions in America. We are afraid of different and even more afraid of discomfort. We see only through the narrow sense of our cultural upbringing and refuse to consider seeing how another has experienced life. And so we judge from a disinterested distance or form false biases.
A lack of curiosity is why we get bored so easily and find so little enjoyment in good things. We always need a new thing instead of wringing all the good out of the thing we have. We are moving so fast that every enjoyment is like a taste test instead of a thing we savor.
A lack of curiosity is why we know so little about so many things and people and peoples. And so we live small lives defined by our day to day and waking hours.
The flip side of all this is that curiosity – the intentional pursuit of truth and desire to see God’s workmanship – gives life and hope and richness to all those parts of life. It is the means by which we can be better and fuller image-bearers of God and see that image in others. And it is how we can discover so many opportunities for enjoyment and joy and wonder and fun in the world around us.
That is why I wrote The Curious Christian. I hope to give readers a taste of wonder, a desire for more, and permission to be curious in whatever unique way God has designed them. I hope to help people see that curiosity is a virtue and a discipline, but more than that it is an ingredient to the best sort of life we can lead – the life that reflects God and see’s all that He is doing around us.
To learn more about the book you can visit CuriousChristianBook.com. There is even a short curiosity evaluation to help you see just how curious you actually are.