Day 1: What Curiosity Can Do For Your Faith
Side Bar: It’s 10:49pm and I am writing this after a long day of work and life-ing :)
One of my earliest memories of being curious about what God really said was when I was very young (I don’t remember how old I was) and it happened during a sunday service. I had graduated children church so I was sitted in the main church auditorium and this pastor was talking about Ephesians 5:22–23. Now, if you grew up in church, you’ll know that a lot of pastors end the reading at verse 23 and don’t go on to say what the expectations of the husband is. Anytime, this happened I would be curious about what the Bible told men to do. I never bothered to check scriptures for myself, I just innately knew that there was no way God would address only one gender when He made both.
Last year, I started reading my Bible out of sheer curiosity. There was just so many false doctrine and wrong teachings even from well meaning preachers that was just out in the world affecting the lives of people. I wanted to know what God thought of certain trends and lifestyles that had become prominent in mainstream culture. I wondered, ‘did God really care about everything?’ ‘does our lifestyle really impact our capacity to love and serve the Lord?’. I wanted to answer the burning question I had about God’s opinion about women. I wanted to know whether it was true that Christ did not have female disciples. I wanted to know why the Bible told only women to be submissive and men had no instruction- to me, this was unfair and the God my father told me about was a just God. Hence, I wanted to know the truth. It wasn’t even just about sticking with my religion. Rather, it was about trying to reconcile this good God my dad continued to talk about with the God I heard certain preachers teach. I wanted to know everything about the person of Christ. It was less about what God could do for me and more about what I would find out about Him. I was simply just curious. It was research for my faith. So I started reading and I found light.
You know that saying, ‘curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back’? That was my experience. Out of curiosity, I started reading the Bible. I didn’t read to confirm any bias. I didn’t read in an attempt to try to defend God. I just read to know, to understand, for myself first.
In reading scriptures, I found out that the Bible does address both husband and wife afterall. I found out that Christ had more than the 12 disciples (even though the 12 were the core disciples that followed him everywhere and was even part of a larger symbolism of the 12 tribes of Israel in the old Convenant), and women were infact very much an active part of His ministry. In fact, the book of Luke recounts names of women who played significant role in Jesus’ early ministry as well as in the early church.
Because I was curious enough about God, about my faith, when I moved to a new city, I didn’t just go to the next popular church in town. I went ‘church hunting’. I specifically wanted a church that was sound in doctrine and taught the word of God without additives. Eventually, I did find one to call home.
I have found that God is interested in every facet of our lives. I have found that the general morality of the world, the world’s view of right and wrong, deeply stems from the Bible. So in a way, society got it’s bearings from the Christian faith. I found this insightful article that digs even deeper into this angle.
I am still reading the New Convenant or the New Testament as it is popularly called. I am currently reading 1st John and I am hoping to wrap up Revelations by month end. Then, I plan to read the Torah (which is the first five books of the Old Convenant). I want to group the old testament into themes- the Torah, The Kings and Kingdom of Israel, The prophets, The books of wisdom; and inflect the nuances surounding these themes as I read. I am learning that cultural nuances, context lost in transalating the Bible from Hebrew/Jewish to English have a deep impact on the final message of the Bible that we have today.
I am still learning but I will never stop seeking. I still have beef with Paul over Ephesians 5;22–23 but I take solace in the knowledge that men have an equally heavy task to perform. Eventually, I intend to explore reading the Bible in the original language in which these verses were written and consider cultural nuances that existed in those times, just to understand the context of some scriptures.
So far, the Jesus that I have met personally and the one I have seen in scriptures, blow my mind and I am content to walk with Him for the rest of my life. This Jeus, is my ride or die and i’ll never stop being curious about knowing Him more. I will never stop seeking, never stop searching, never stop reaching for Him. I will never stop worshiping, never stop yearning, never stop leaning into fellowship with Him, all the days of my life, I tow this path of faith. Even though I am a christian because of christ, I am more interested in the person of christ than the religion of chrisitanity. This is why I was able to deconstruct and find christ. This is why I was able to ask questions and He revealed himself to me.
You see, the Jesus that I have come to know is a God who isn’t hiding. In fact, he wants you to seek him.But you have to do it from a place of honest, blatant curiosity and you have to be willing to walk the path that will lead you to truth. My controversial take is that deconstructing faith without actually doing the work is lazy and proof that you don’t even rate your soul. I say this with love and warmth.
If you are wondering why your faith walk feels stagnant, if you are yearning to know Jesus more, if you are questioning a lot of things about religion, then pick up your Bible and read the word of God today. The lord will reveal himself to you through scriptures, I can assure you. Curiosity led me to this point and I hope you are curious enough to begin your own journey.
Love & light.
