Passion

Life seems to be spinning out of control lately. It is one thing after another. I keep this false hope that things will slow down. I am not sure that it will though. For years I have thought this same way that things will slow down eventually and I will be able to do this or that. It has kept me from doing things that need to be done because I say to myself, "I will get to it eventually. I just need to wait until things slow down." One of those things that I have put off for so long is serving in the community at church.

Right now I am going to a fantastic church and have been going for the last year and a half. I love it and have enjoyed being a part of this local body. At least for a year since I have been going, I have been challenged to serve in some capacity. The problem for me was that my life was so busy and so I just kept saying to myself that, "Yeah it would be nice to have the time to serve but I have a hectic schedule. I am lucky to even be at church let alone take more time to serve."

Every person that asks about my passions I will tell them, in some form or another, the same thing. "My passion is people." I love people. I love talking with people and serving people. I love to love people. I love to make a person smile when they have had a hard day and I love to make people laugh so hard that they do their bizarre laugh (You know the one that says to the world, "I don't care what I sound like, that was funny.") At the same time, because people are my passion they can also frustrate me to the point that I want to kick over an ant hill and rip a phone book for Jesus (*Please see more details under "The Power Team"). I love what Brian McLaren says regarding our passions. He says that we each have passions that draw us closer to God. If we are passionate about rock climbing, how much greater is God who formed the rocks and created them? I know this to be true because when I think about how my passion is God's same passion, it takes on a new dimension.

But it is amazing how you can have a passion and walk away from it because your life is too busy. In some ways, I think we feel more responsible as adults for not pursuing our passions. When I was in high school my passion was guitar. Live, breath, and sleep revolved around the next riff or song that I could play. This passion extended into my college years. A couple of years ago, I had pretty much stopped playing for like a month or two because I had found that it was taking too much time away from other things. Since then, I haven't played like I use to meaning that instead of playing for a few hours every day, I play for about a half hour every couple of days. I am completely resolved in this and recognize that my passions have changed a bit since high school. The interesting thing is that during the time that I had stopped playing all together, there were moments that I wanted to play but I would just say to myself that I needed to focus on other areas of my life.

I think what can so often happen to us as humans is that we forget our passions and become machines for the sake of growing up. We think that if we can just focus on success that our lives will be fulfilling and we can live out our passions in the future. It is a mistake to think in this regard. If there is no promise of tomorrow, what am I doing today to fulfill my passions? As we lose our passions, life becomes colorless. Passion is the pallet of color that brings light to the outline of the picture that is our lives. In order to feel human, we must be aggressive with finding time for our passions.

We have all had days, and will have days, that consist of waking up and going to sleep and never bringing color to our lives throughout the day. These days lead to dull lives and then when we get a day off or time away, we don't know what to do with ourselves. We forget what life was like before work, school, church, etc.

 

As I have come to this realization and have decided to make room for my passions, I have also realized that my passion for people must be developed in the church. It isn't an obligation or a thing that I am resentful for. I am actually excited about it and can't wait to get started. The truth is, I have wanted to serve the church in some capacity for awhile and every Sunday I have wanted to join those who are serving. I am excited about the opportunity to do so. Hopefully, I won't have to tear many phone books for Jesus in the next several months either.