Holy Curiosity
Before Albert Einstein became internationally famous and his face was everywhere, he came to America to give a series of lectures. There was no mass media at the time or press teams mobbing the great scientist. He traveled the university speaker’s circuit with a chauffeur who just happened to favor Einstein in looks and build.
After so many dinners and lectures and giving the same speech again and again, Einstein was weary of speechmaking. The chauffeur had listened to the lecture so many times that he knew it by heart. So they devised a plan for the scientist and the chauffeur to switch roles. At the next lecture, Einstein dressed in the chauffeur’s uniform, the chauffeur in the scientist’s rumpled suit.
Einstein sat in the packed lecture hall contentedly listening to his own words brilliantly recited by his chauffeur. The chauffeur even answered a few simple questions from the audience. Then a supremely pompous professor rose from his seat and asked a complex question about anti-matter formation. The question was worded in such a way as to show off the professor’s great knowledge.
The whole room was riveted by the question and all eyes were fixed upon the imposter who just laughed at the question and answered, “Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that my chauffeur on the front row will answer for me.”
I’ve been an actor for a long time. There is a big difference between playing a character and actually being the man you are portraying. I’ve played a lawyer, but you don’t want me to argue a case for you. I’ve playing a doctor, but you don’t want me to perform surgery on you. I’ve played an artist, but you would never commission me for a painting. You want the real thing.
And the real deal, the real Einstein lived every day with a “holy curiosity” about the universe. “The important thing is to not stop questioning,” Einstein wrote. “Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity…” This taken from Old Man’s Advice to Youth: Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.
Our world is full of wonders all around us, above and below us. Each of us are also wonders of creation. We are wonders of God’s design fit into this “marvelous structure of reality.” Be filled with a holy curiosity every day.