When someone dies and then comes back from the dead, it is natural to have a few questions. When he speaks in cryptic stories that seem to make more sense to other people, it is natural to wonder why he did not speak more clearly, or what you might be missing. Simply put, the Bible offers many opportunities for us to wonder. Curiosity is neutral—neither good nor bad. It is what we do with that curiosity that can be healthy or unhealthy. When Jesus appeared to all the disciples but Thomas, it should not surprise us that Thomas asked for a little more proof than the desperate disciples’ testimony. Again, not taking at face value something as intense as a resurrection is probably the best posture anyway. Nothing is getting by you, Thomas!
As a faith leader, how we respond to the natural curiosity of our congregations will play a large role in shaping the composition of faith in our community. If we crush every inquiry, squelch every pondering, curtail the creative and sometimes bizarre, we will stifle the faith of these people. Notice again that when Thomas needs a little extra proof, Jesus arrives and gives him exactly what he asked for. He neither chastises him nor makes him feel guilty for his natural curiosity. When we shut the door on questions coming from the people we serve, what we really communicate is that we don’t have the answers—or maybe we are afraid of what those answers may be.
The condition for faith to grow
Curiosity—doubt—creates the condition of possibility for faith to grow. When someone is certain about something, there is not a lot of room for wonder. A friend of mine knows someone who enjoys recording sports games, looking up the score, and then watching the recording while knowing the result. He calls it the “freedom of the final score.” When he knows the final score, there are very few surprises. I do not think this is how we were meant to view sports, nor do I think it is a healthy way to approach God. When we do not know which way things will go, that space can be filled by faith and hope. And then in those moments when God does arrive, the person who has fostered their curiosity can still be surprised by God’s action. Leaving space for God to be God means that we sit in the tension of genuinely not knowing what is going to happen. And while we do technically have some information regarding the ultimate end of things, there is no “freedom of the final score” in the individual moments of the Christian life.
Not being able to know everything can be scary. But that is an abstract statement. It is when we are in the midst of a difficult situation that not knowing how it will turn out becomes terrifying. When we have to trust God, the result is out of our control. In these moments, curiosity can become crippling (has anyone ever received an answer for “why” they were suffering?). Curiosity can also open the door to the possibility that your faith just might grow as a result of this difficult circumstance.
In one of the most famous examples of faith, bravery, and courage, three young men who were ripped from their homes are given a choice of whom they will follow. Faced with death, the young men explain that God can save them. Then they reveal that they are unsure of whether he will be coming to their rescue or not. Regardless, they acted in faith and were cast into a super-heated fiery furnace as a result. To everyone’s amazement, God does arrive and enters the furnace with them. It is entirely appropriate to file this story under the category of “supernatural faith,” but I think it is equally important to highlight the fact that these boys did not know anything for certain except that God was capable of saving them.
Fostering curiosity
Remember that although you are Christian leaders, you will have areas of doubt, too. Just being a pastor or other leader does not divest us of our humanity. We will still always have questions left unanswered. For those of us who work with children or teenagers, we may encounter more unanswerable questions than answerable ones. That is okay. God is infinite, and there are things we cannot understand. There are some practical questions that remain unanswered (like, how are we already talking about cities in Genesis 4 with Cain; where did all these people come from?), and some significant ones. There are ones like my daughter asked me when she was four years old: “Dad, should I love Satan? Because God made him, and I want to love everyone God made!” While this may seem like it has an obvious answer, how you answer a question sometimes is just as important as the answer itself.
If you want to foster a curious community, be curious yourself. Remember that the pulpit is not usually the appropriate place for many of the questions you wrestle with in seminary (at least not until you have settled them yourself relatively well), but there are ways you can show your people that you are a safe place for them to wrestle with their questions. Teaching them not to see their questions as adversaries of their faith but rather the condition of possibility for their faith to grow will also go a long way in establishing a community that continues to work out its salvation (Philippians 2:12).Finally, do not be afraid to treat questions the way Jesus usually did, with other questions. Jesus almost never directly answered a question. Often when asked a question, Jesus would follow up with a question of his own that would either redirect or focus the individual on what was important. Figuring out what is going on behind the question can often be more important than answering the question directly.
The bottom line is that when it comes to our faith, curiosity is not a bad thing. As James K. A. Smith says, “We’re all Thomas now” (How [Not] to Be Secular, p. 2). Instead of that scaring us (as it often did to previous generations of Christians), let us remind ourselves that Thomas touched Jesus. Oh, to be Thomas, indeed.
