By: Justin Dillenschneider, Director of Student Life
Week of September 27th, 2021
Curiosity can be defined as the inquisitive interest in the affairs of others or the operational details and functionality involved in the affairs of the universe. This virtue can be particularly difficult to balance in the world we live in. The rise of technology and social media have put access to more information at our fingertips in seconds than we can handle or process in days or weeks. As Brett McCracken says in his book The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World,“The cumulative effect of too much information—so easily and constantly accessible to us—creates a burden that our minds and souls were not created to bear.” This can lead us to concern ourselves with things that are neither ours to control nor to cause division over, or to throw our hands up and become apathetic to anything and everything outside of our immediate concerns. Curiosity strikes the balance between these two extremes; fully acknowledging that we are finite and cannot understand or control everything but remaining deeply enthralled in God’s good creation and our place in it.
Continue contemplating courage by looking at this week’s scripture reading from
Mark 10:17-22 CSB: The Rich Young Ruler
17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not defraud; honor your father and mother.” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.”21 Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 But he was dismayed by this demand, and he went away grieving because he had many possessions.
We want to encourage you to have a conversation this week about the virtue of curiosity. Consider these discussion prompts together:
- What tempts you with a feeling of indifference? Where do you see indifference taking hold in your life?
- Where have you seen people fall into meddling? Where are you tempted to do so?
- What are some ways you see Christ correcting meddling or indifference in Scripture? What are some ways you see him responding to curiosity?
Hymn to Sing Together: Be Thou My Vision