Curiosity Matters

I recently woke up at three in the morning and couldn’t fall back to sleep. This is a relatively usual occurrence, but normally it is because of a dream. On this early morning awakening, however, I did not remember what I was dreaming about. I was just lying there with the song “As the Days Go By,” on repeat in my head. I could not shake it. The more the song’s lyrics came to me the longer I laid awake. My mind kicked into gear as I tried to remember the sit-com this theme music belonged to. It was maddening. Why am I singing this damn song? Which television stars from my childhood are typically associated with this music? I tossed and turned. I resisted the urge with every fiber of my being to reach for my device on the nightstand. I can do this. I can figure it out on my own. C’mon, Keith! Think! I ruled out classics like Who’s the Boss? and Family Ties. Is this from Growing Pains? I tried out an Alan Thicke and Kirk Cameron montage but no, that didn’t click. Something was different about this song that made me think it was from the nineties not the eighties. The cop from Die Hard came to mind—couldn’t remember his name, but I became about ninety percent sure this cheesy ear worm was the theme music to Family Matters—a show made famous by the lovable dweeb Steve Erkel. The song kept blaring between my ears. Sleep finally poked at me so I grabbed my phone to put the mystery to rest. (Oh internet, where would I be without you? I will tell you where: ninety percent sure it was Family Matters, but still dialing up one of my brothers at three in the morning and singing “As the Days Go By” for them so I could solve the puzzle and go back to sleep.)

What keeps you up at night? Babies, bladders, vivid dreams? The safety of your teenagers or your adult children serving in the military? Work-related stress? Racial injustice? The climate? Your snoring spouse or something you ate that does not agree with your digestive system? When I’m not playing name that tune because of the extensive library of cheesy television theme music I’ve memorized, what keeps me up most sleepless nights are questions. Questions about Jesus and the Bible and the universe. Questions about Truth with a capital T. I know what you’re thinking: that’s even weirder than singing the theme song to Family Matters. You’re not wrong. Of course, my vocation as a pastor is to blame, but even that cannot account for all this curiosity.

I’m not altogether sure when curiosity became a taboo trait for active Jesus followers, but I aim to change curiosity from a taboo to a priority in our lives of discipleship. Articulating what we believe as disciples isn’t nearly as important as how and why a person has arrived at those beliefs. What people think and believe about God, Jesus, and the Bible are of crucial importance if the Christian Church is to stave off extinction.