Relationship Remix - 3 C's That Sabotage Relationships

Tuesday, November 25th

I shared a quote from Brene Brown yesterday. The opposite of curious is disengaged.”
If you don’t want to be disengaged from life, then let’s learn, as disciples, what it means to be curious.

First step towards curiosity. Curiosity breaks down the walls of our fear, insecurity, anger, judgement, ignorance, arrogance, or laziness.

Mark 2:1-12- Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on.

I love this, talk about curiosity, friendship curiosity. The friends were so committed to get their lame friend to Jesus, that they began chipping away at the ceiling, and then lowering their friend down in the middle of the room, at Jesus’ feet. It was a curious faith that led them to do this. Don’t you want friends like that?

Think of the alternative. Your buddies are like, “yeah, Jesus is town, you can’t walk, so let’s go see him.” They get to the house of where Jesus is, they see it’s packed, and they are like. “Sorry man, I know Jesus is just on the other side of that wall. But we can’t get to him, it will be too hard. Maybe we just come back another time.” As the lame friend, if your “friends” responded that way, I’m guessing you’d be asking the question, “who’s lame now?”
Folks, I get it, we are willing to do that if we see folks physically hurting. But we get less curious when we see people who are spiritually, relationally, or emotionally hurting. Having a curious faith is when we see someone limping through life and through bold humility, we look for ways to connect them with Jesus…. Because notice that Jesus tended to his spiritual state before his physical state.

5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Lack of curiosity kept the Pharisees in their head, in their judgement. They were thinking those questions, thinking those judgmental thoughts. Jesus’ curiosity, having a sense in his spirit, called out their questions, which led to a sinful man forgiven and a lame man dancing out into the street.

Curiosity led to healing (spiritually and physically). When we are willing to get curious, it can break down the walls of our arrogance or ignorance, it can chip away at our judgement or our fear.

Today, how can you take what you are “thinking” and be curious? How can you name what you are feeling that is holding you back (fear, arrogance, judgement) and trusting the Holy Spirit, still ask a question? I even prompt it sometimes. “Hey, can I be curious for moment?” Or “Hey, I could be wrong, I’m just curious.” Setting things up like that breaks down the walls of what holds us back and begins to build a bridge toward the other person.