Our young human nature will explore life, both good things and bad things. This curiosity extends to the animal world. Most of us have heard the expression, “Curiosity killed the cat.” With just a short time of observing the feline species, particularly young ones, we can understand the truth of that axiom. As we follow through with what we discover in our curiosity, we will reap from what we find, whether it be good or bad. On the bad side, as a kid, probably about 11 years old, I was curious about chewing tobacco. I saw others do it, and it looked good to me. I thought it looked kind of neat and tough and manly to chew and spit. I saw myself being neat, tough, and manly by chewing tobacco. So, I cut me off a big plug of my Dad’s chewing tobacco, got on my bicycle, and off I went. We were living in the woods near Poyen, AR, and the dirt road leading from our house was long, straight, and lined with “bar ditches” on both sides of the road. Bar ditches, in that flat part of the country, were ditches that were filled with water most months of the year. Well, I got a big mouthful of tobacco and started chewing away as I rode down the long, straight road. “Hmm”, I thought, “this stuff is pretty good – kinda sweet!” So I chewed away. I didn’t know you were not supposed to swallow the juice. I was thoroughly enjoying my new sweet treat. Now I understood why men chewed tobacco, it was good! So I rode along on my bicycle feeling neat, tough, and manly. Suddenly, my head started feeling funny. “Whew!” I thought to myself, “my head is spinning!” It quickly got overpowering and I found myself, bicycle and all, crashed into the bar ditch, feeling sick. With the wad of tobacco duly discharged from my mouth, I lay there watching the trees spin slowly around me. In time, I walked my bicycle back to the house. That was the last chewing tobacco I have ever had in my mouth.
Curiosity can be good, too. It is good to be curious about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the way God operates. We can take that curiosity to a man and ask questions and trust what the man says, or, we can take it to God himself and to his Word, and ask him to guide us and reveal his truth and his way to us. What the Word says, plain and simple, is the truth. As we submit our lives to God to wholly follow Jesus, he said if we would continue in his word we would know the truth, and the truth would set us free. He said if we continue in his Word, not man’s word – what does the plainly written Word say? Get curious about that. Don’t be ditched by a wad of man’s word. Follow Jesus and ride on freely.