Becoming Curious: A Spiritual Practice of Asking Questions

Curiosity is essential to growth.A little curiosity moves us deeper into the lives of the people around us.A little curiosity leads to opportunities we never knew existed. A little curiosity helps us understand our own strange emotions.A little curiosity, if focused on Jesus, will make us more like him.Pastor and spiritual director Casey Tygrett loves to ask questions. "There's a difficult line to walk between what we need to know and what falls into the realm of mystery," he writes. "Walking that line often wears on our nerves and causes incredible tension, and so we settle for easy answers. We stop asking questions. We give up. We begin to lose the one thing that fiercely energizes the transformation of our souls―something beautiful, poetic, joyful, and happily disruptive: curiosity.?When we make curiosity a spiritual practice, we open up to new ways of knowing God and knowing ourselves as well. Come and discover the power of asking questions.

Casey Tygrett (DMin, Lincoln Christian Seminary) is a theologian in residence at Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park, Illinois. He previously served as teaching pastor at Heartland Community Church and has taught at Lincoln Christian University and Seminary and Emmanuel Christian Seminary. Casey now oversees the spiritual direction practice for Soul Care, hosts the Restlessness Is a Gift Podcast, and is the author of Becoming Curious and The Gift of Restlessness.

James Bryan Smith is the author of The Good and Beautiful Series. He is a theology professor at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, where he also serves as the director of the Apprentice Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation. A founding member of Richard J. Foster's spiritual renewal ministry, Renovaré, Smith is an ordained United Methodist Church minister and has served in various capacities in local churches.