Silencing Judgment With Curiosity

​Doing some final preparations for a conversation I'll have with incoming college students today. I'll have twenty minutes to answer the big question: How do we work across lines of differences in our communities?

Easy, right? 😊

Reflecting back some 40 years ago when I started college, many of the lines of differences we have today were lines of differences back then. But in most cases—certainly not all—the lines didn't feel like dividing lines as much as they feel like dividing lines today.

I personally think differences are awesome. I can't imagine living in a world where everyone's lines were the exact same as mine. We were all created different, so, clearly our creator must think differences are awesome too. Yet, it can get to feeling like I'm living in the middle of a battle that is progressively squeezing everyone into thinking and feeling and believing the exact same things.

As if mass agreement is some good or even reasonable outcome?

I will not be encouraging agreement today; I'll be encouraging curiosity. I will be encouraging students to put aside what they think they know about each other's lines and commit to deeper exploring them.

Judgment will always be a part of life. I am sure each of us will do some judging at some point today. Likely at MANY points.

But that's not our problem.

Our problem is when judgment has so overtaken our lives that there is no room left for curiosity. No room left to question if I truly know everything there is to know about another that I believe I already know.

I'm excited about this opportunity. My own two teens have left me with hope that theirs is a curious generation. That maybe theirs will be the generation that makes our differences more awesome than they've ever been.