It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. – Proverbs 25:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 18, 2013): Proverbs 25

I am curious. It seems that if my attention is really caught by something, to know that it exists is not enough – I want to know how it works. I am currently working on a project in which I am trying to see if there is a holy grail unified personality theory that links together issues like personality profile, personality gifts, talents, maturity and core desire together (hopefully in a simple way – but so far it is far from simple.) The concept that pushes me forward is that I am curious about whether if we could live out of the center of these five core competencies, if living life just might be easier – and maybe burnout would be a little less likely. But all of this is simply borne out of a curiosity about our own personal make up.

I am curious. Often I seem to want to re-invent the wheel (after all, it is fun – and life should be fun.) And I have to admit that I am not sure that I understand people that are not curious. In some ways, I probably do not really understand people that think in black and white terms and often just accept the things that have been taught. For the curious, I think that the beauty of life is in the wonderful shades of grey – of the things that we just do not understand. And these are the things that spark our curiosity. I recognize that for some; and maybe especially these accepting people, curiosity is bad (after all, don’t you know that “curiosity killed the cat.” Incidentally, I wonder why we often just seem to use only the first part of the old English proverb which reads “curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.”) But I think curiosity is not bad, in fact for a good life, it is necessary.

So the proverb here would seem to agree. Some translations separate the two phrases by saying that it is God’s glory to conceal things, but it is the king’s honor to search things out. But in the original language, it is the same word that is used in both places. God receives glory and honor for the magnificence of his creation which, even in our advanced state of knowledge, contains so many things that we just do not understand, but it is a king’s glory and honor to puzzle out the things that God has hidden. There is intense beauty in both.  

For us today, I think the use of the word “king” in this passage simply indicates those that lead. It is essential for those of us who are leaders that we remain curious. And the reason it is necessary is because leaders and “kings” have the ability to lead the people around them into some of the beautiful grey areas of life. True leaders have even the responsibility to lead the people around them into the curious areas of life – for it is there they will find the beauty (and satisfaction of the cat) that makes life worth living (and brings us back.)  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 26