It only took 18 days into 2021 to write my first post of 2021 (FYI, I write these way before you get to see them — for various reasons).

I had a lot to write and a lot to say. In the end, I just simply nixed it all. Put it on the back burner.
It’s weird. Sometimes, it’s hard to write things because there’s nothing to write.
But, when I have too many ideas — I end up not writing either because I don’t know which idea to run with.
A lot of it has to do with my wanting to procrastinate. But I plan on addressing my procrastinating ways. Starting tomorrow, that is.

I ended up getting a free 1-year subscription to Apple TV+ that came with an Apple product I purchased.
My friend, the Rob Tucker of Watkins UMC in Kentucky had been recommending that I watch Ted Lasso. But I don’t listen to Rob Tucker because he’s a Florida Man living in Kentucky. Just kidding. Rob’s a good guy (considering he’s a Florida man living in Kentucky).
But I eventually started watching Ted Lasso.
And how I fell in love with it.
After I finished it, I watched it again, this time with my wife.
I knew it would, at the least, be decent because it’s a Bill Lawrence show. And Scrubs is my favorite show ever.
But it’s one of the best things I’ve watched during this pandemic. Maybe it’s because when I started watching it, things were really heavy with the world and this was such a nice, endearing, heartwarming alternative to the news I was consuming.

One of my favorite scenes involves a game of darts.
Here it is — probably spoiler alerts.

But in the scene, Lasso (Jason Sudekis) quotes Walt Whitman, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

That quote (and the scene above) decided that it was going to lodge itself in my subconscious.

One of the books that we read for bedtime is Curious George’s Curious You: On Your Way!
It encourages the reader to be curious as they continue to grow and to be reminded that there will always be people rooting them on.

Be curious, not judgmental.

What sound words for me for 2021.
I know that I’m more judgmental than curious.
And, unfortunately, I do not think I am the only one.

As I was trying to search for the words to reflect on “curiosity” and being curious, my friend Michael Gienger of Galveston Central (where “curiosity” is one of their values) wrote this on his Facebook page:

I always assumed that the word “curiosity” came from the Latin root “cur,” meaning “why.” Some of the most curious people I know ask the best questions. They embody this childlike faith that Jesus speaks about over and over again. Why? Why? Why?
As it turns out, the root of “curiosity” is not “cur,” but “cura,” which of course changes everything.
“Cura” has the general sense of “the care, concern, or attention given to something or someone.” Often it refers to “medical care or healing.”
So, curiosity is not simply the incessant asking of “Why? Why? Why?” (which is a beautiful thing!) …but a posture of openness and wonder that propels you towards yourself, your neighbor (including your enemy), and the divine in such a way that ultimately leads to healing and wholeness.

Rev. Michael Gienger

Ah.
We want people of Mosaic Church to be on a journey from Stranger to Neighbor.
Not the ‘high fences makes the best neighbor’ type of neighbor, the but the one that Jesus and the Bible talks about — calls us to be. A neighbor that we love like our own; like our very selves.
What is a stranger, though?
A stranger is someone whose story we don’t know yet.
Same goes for an enemy. An enemy is a person whose story we don’t know yet.

Being curious will help eliminate the strangers and enemies in our lives because we’ll make them our neighbors— folks we’ll do community with.

So. In the words of Walt Whitman: be curious, not judgmental.

Keep asking “Why?”
But more importantly, keep a posture of openness and wonder that propels you towards yourself, your neighbor (including your enemy) and the divine in such a way that ultimately leads to healing and wholeness.

Be curious, not judgmental.