holy curiosity at work

I do chaplain rounds at our local hospital about four times per month... Last week, unlike other nights, I focused on simply being curious and interested in folks. While it may surprise some, there is so much pressure on chaplains to see a certain number of folks but especially get a certain amount of information so that we can make a spiritual assessment (we have to show that we have a positive effect on the “bottom line”). Persons can get lost in the process.
But while writing lately on Mark’s gospel, I had looked up agape (the Greek word for “love”) again and saw where "interest" is one of the definitions. So over the last few days I had tried to simply be more "interested" in other people... It so much easier than the sacrificial heroism that agape usually gets preached as...And it is really amazing... Just being interested in people is a huge gift to them.
I also finished Winn Collier’s book, Holy Curiosity, several weeks ago… so that night at the hospital, I also added curiosity to the mix.... Patients acted like they felt comfortable around me, opened up (told me more than I was SUPPOSED or needed to find out) and then I had this really powerful conversation with the older gentleman who just found out he has cancer...
His faith is obviously important to him... but back around 1968 after some major health problems (after someone asked him he was saved - he did have church background), he decided that God must be able to save him without having to use Jesus to do it...
I know this guy's "theology" is not orthodox but he told me this was the first time he had really ever talked about any of this in 40 years... I felt like I was giving his spirit some room to breathe and moistening the soul where seeds doubtless are already planted... I gave him my telephone number and encouraged him to call me sometime he wanted to talk some more or get coffee... But this conversation was so God-breathed... I had just come from another patient’s family where the “family chaplain” had been trying to force and push salvation on their dying ex-father-in-law for so long that he was totally closed off.
I got to thinking about it - I don't think Jesus went around pushing people into heaven... Even with the woman from Tyre in Mark 7 who was probably a different religion in addition to a different gender and culture, Jesus did not hound her asking her if she was saved and where she would go if she died that same night. Like Winn said in his book, Jesus was curious, genuinely interested in others, and asked some really great questions...
I am really grateful for the ministry I have received from Winn Collier, Downtown Community Fellowship and other “emerging” brothers and sisters. As a result of their grace and peace, I have really started embracing my distinctly Christian influence. They have given me that space or moisture to be able to
share some of that same sacred space with another traveler who thought there was not another way of being Christian...

Note: If you are “interested” in seeing Jesus’ curiosity further at work, make sure and check out Winn’s book at http://tinyurl.com/97sgby (a link to Holy Curiosity on amazon.com). Winn provides us with an excellent example of that holy curiosity in words and person.