My granddaughter moved in a few weeks ago. O yeah – my daughter and son-in-law moved in too, but I’m writing about my granddaughter because I was utterly surprised by her. I knew she’d be here, but had no idea how much she’d teach me because I’d forgotten about being a child. We bonded quickly and though I’m aware that I write shielded from the hard 24/7 work of discipline, care, and nurture that is parenting, I’m nonetheless seeing this small child, I believe, through a different lens now than the lens through which I saw my own children decades ago. Maybe its because I’m at a stage of life where I’m less driven. Maybe I’m a little softer now. I don’t know. I only know that my time with my granddaughter sweeps away some things in me that need sweeping away so that I can once again learn what it means to have ‘faith like a child’.
I hope that by sharing some things I’m learning, you too can enjoy a little refreshment.
Cultivate Curiosity – “What’s that?” is the phrase I’m hearing most these days. Luci will point at any item in the house and ask. She knows what she doesn’t know, and strangely, that’s a fundamental precondition for learning and knowing anything. One of the problems with adulthood in general is that once we’ve developed a capacity to find our way through the maze that is daily living, we’re at risk of functionally becoming “zombies”; not literally of course, but in the sense that we’re falling far short of the kind of humans we’re created to be. Instead of overflowing with delight, gratitude, and deep engagement in the moment, we’re stuck inside our heads with anxiety, fear, regret, shame, judgements, and obsession with our appetites.
We all need to re-cultivate curiosity, but none need it more than the political and religious fundamentalists of any denomination or party. Matthew Perry, a journalist and atheist, wrote an article entitled “Africa Needs God” in which he declares that his travels in Africa revealed that, “Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world – a directness in their dealings with others – that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.”
I wish this was true among Christ followers in America, but instead we’re predominantly listening for keywords so that we can put people in bins. I just read that all democrats are “haters”, just as I read that all republicans are “blind,” (a charge also brought against democrats). Don’t even get me started about the mudslinging generalizations tossed at churches by churches. If someone doesn’t use the right word to describe the authority of the Bible or have the wrong view of who gets to be a church member, or a different view of baptism, or the meaning of what happened on the cross, or whatever, they get a label and presto! You don’t need to learn anything from them anymore.
When did we become only turf defenders, judging those who view the world differently? When we allowed curiosity to dry up? Listen! We have nothing to fear by asking questions, nothing to fear by holding our convictions with an open hand. This is because Jesus is “the truth” and so if we’re seeking truth, then we’ll find it – eventually. But seekers of truth operate under the presupposition that they don’t have all the answers, and that even some of the answers they hold might just need a bit of adjusting.
We’re in drought season when it comes to the matter of humble curiosity. Children can help us unlearn our arrogance and start learning again.
Enjoy Helping – As I was packing for my speaking trip this past week, Luci was with me so I handed her my tech cords and asked her to put them in my backpack. She was finished in seconds and asked, “What else goes in your backpack?” And thus began a half hour of my granddaughter helping me pack, and talking about airplanes.
When did we grow up and begin viewing help as a burden, or a privilege we dole out while patting ourselves on the back? It happened, ironically, to the extent that we became insecure in our identity, because the people who give generously to their last breath are people who know they are full. They know they’ve received much, and so find it both a privilege and delight to give much. What’s more, like Luci, people who serve do so as a means of bonding with people. The task isn’t unimportant, but it’s very secondary to the relationship. Luci wants (to my utter delight) to be with me!
There’s a delight in relationship that trumps task and this becomes the culture in which service can grow.
Laugh – while we were sitting together watching the World Cup final, Luci brought out a quartet of tiny stuffed animals, all from the Winnie the Pooh collection. I tossed one at her and it hit her on the head. She burst into laughter so I threw another, and another, and another, until all four were on the floor. When she stopped laughing for two seconds she picked them up and tossed them at me. I caught them and threw them back, not ‘to’ her, but ‘at’ her, and soon she was on the floor laughing more, and more and more.
I don’t think I’d laughed that hard in real life for a quite a while because, you know, adulthood. Plans. Goals. Aches and pains. Fears and regrets. Investments. Properties. Retirement. Health Insurance. Politics…and a host of other things that steal our capacity to find joy in the moment. The serious business of living.
Really? How about we become like children again and live out from a posture of trust? “Faith like a child” is what Jesus called it, and when we live like that, we’re less worried about the future, less shamed over our past, and as a result, more completely in the moment.