Oh, the name game. It
drives me crazy. It is so hard sometimes
to sort through the tangled lines in my brain and come up with someone’s name
that I should know. I reach for the name as it floats around,
elusively. I really don’t think it is a
memory thing, but the fact that my head is so full of stuff.
Years ago I was sitting in a math class and one of my peers
could be heard commenting, “I don’t keep anything in my head that I am not
going to need in the next few minutes.”
I think she spoke into the future as her philosophy has never
been more fitting than it is today. Why
do I need to keep everything in my head when I can look it up? Oh, and look it up I do. It is a sickness really. At my fingertips is the answer to every
question that enters my head, not that I retain it for very long, once I get
it.
Want to know why our ears have to be so big and why they can’t
just lay flatter against our heads?
Want to know whether that person on television is married or
has a family?
Or the definition of swill
bucket?
Yes, I am a questioner.
On our family trips, I am sure I drove my mother crazy with all my
questions about farming. Sometimes, I imagine hearing my husband sigh when he
looks at me and says, “I really don’t know.”
(I am rightfully shocked as I truly believe that somehow he has the
answers to all my questions.)
But having a curious mind is good, right? You understand me, don’t you? Okay, maybe your questions are more profound
than mine, but we are kindred spirits in this, right?
You know what is really good to inquire about? Your faith.
Find out what your church believes and why, if you don’t already know.
Dig deep, ask the hard questions, and don’t be afraid of the
answers.
I had a young girl come to my door one day, asking me to buy
her religion textbooks to help her get into her dream (religious) college. I tried to warn her, I really, did. I told her I was pretty steeped in curriculum
and really did not need more books. To
her own peril, she just couldn’t stop.
In my defense, I will say it once again, I did try to warn her.
So I asked her to tell me her story. How did she come to know Jesus? She said she was in her apartment at school,
at a time when she was going through a terrible time and someone knocked on the
door. It was a person from this church
she was involved in now. As my curiosity
peaked with genuine interest and, admittedly an evangelizing bent, we continued
our conversation. I asked so many
questions, and kept her so long at my front door (unintentionally), that I saw
the pick-up car for her driving slowly by.
After going a few times around the block, they eventually
parked and came up to save her, I suppose.
We then continued the conversation until they both told me that they had to leave—kind of an odd twist
to door evangelization visits.
Anyway, I did not end up buying any of her books. But I was
able to spend some time with this nice young girl, hopefully leading her to
delve deeper into her own faith so that she could really contemplate her faith-filled
journey. We talked about how God might start
us in one place, only to lead us to another and the importance of being open to
that.
But, even more strange, is that at the time of our conversation
at the door, unbeknownst to me, we had a service technician listening from the
kitchen, as he was finishing up talking with my husband.
When I finished at the door, he said his wife had just
bought a bunch of books from them, and then we had another conversation about church, something he didn’t really “do”
at the time, but had lots of questions about.
So, I guess having an inquisitive mind might not be so bad
after all. It leads to a lot of interesting
conversations, from which I can learn a lot.
Now, if only I could remember what I learn. That would really be something.
God bless,
Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.com
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