Weekly Thought – March 11, 2014
Fred thoroughly understood the paradox of being both wise and gentle. He valued friendships and carefully considered what it meant to make and keep friendships. He wrote a great deal about the nature of business and personal relationships, offering clear thinking and challenge.
Thank you for your encouraging emails. Fred constantly asked the Lord to make him useful – we continue to ask the same. Our goal is to be helpful by bringing you Fred’s thinking.
Interested, but not Curious
The deep, sincere interest in each other as friends does not include curiosity. Personally, I am “turned off” by those who exhibit idle curiosity about me. Interested-yes; curious-no.
Often people confuse interest in people with curiosity about people. The tabloid culture fosters endless curiosity which has no limits – not even boundaries of common courtesy. The desire to know more and more is morbid and indecent. On the other hand, interest has a positive, helpful, outgoing connotation.
Curiosity is self-centered and self-serving. It scratches an itch that is strictly for selfish satisfaction. It has nothing to do with the serving the good of another. Celebrity chasers don’t think about higher aims for they just want to “get the story.”
Interest is founded on the desire to do good, be helpful, participate in growth, and stretch others. It is part of the process of finding ways to serve. These motivations are 180 degrees apart. (more…)