Friday, July 25, 2008

Passion


What’s your passion in life? What burns in your belly? What do you do that excites you? What do you do that gives you a feeling of accomplishment and achievement?

I love to read books. When I’m asked what type of books I like to read I always fumble around for an answer because truth is, I like to read all kinds of books. I like to read books about church growth, books about business and small business success, books about hobbies I enjoy, theology, and probably my favorite types of books are auto-biographies of people’s lives where were passionately lived. Most of the time these lives were passionately lived about one central thing. This genre also encompasses the new style of book that isn’t quite an auto-biography but is a book that is written from the heart from a non-ficitonal person’s life.

So now when I’m asked the question as to what types of books I like to read I’ll have an answer. But more than an answer as to what types of books I like to read I have an answer as to how I want to live my life. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t exactly the newest revelation. What I recalled in my car this morning, with the radio turned down and only the sound of my car driving on the highway with the windows down is nothing new for me. But it is fresh. And a freshness is what I need right now.

What burns in my belly? Well I have to say Jesus Christ. Thing is if I’m honest I’m not sure I have to say Jesus Christ because I know that’s what I’m supposed to say or if I have ot say Jesus Christ because I really believe that. Of course, I’d like to say it’s because I believe it and I’m pretty sure that’s true. I kknow Christ is my chief corner stone and without him life is futile I just hesitate because I often say that if our behavior doesn’t reflect a belief it’s hardly a belief at all.

What else? I think it’s the secondary passions we have that Christ uses to impact the world. As he resides at the center of our lives and as we strive to reside at the center of his will he sparks in us passions that motivate us. This may or may not be our vocation. I think we often mistake passion for vocation. I think its perfectly possible and perfectly healthy for your vocation not to reflect your passion. Because what we do is not who we are, who we are is this. We are always disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

But what burns in my belly? If I had to boil it down and give an answer, which after all is what this post is all about then I would say my passion is to equip people to live their lives on all cylinders. Pardon the car metaphor. My passion is to equip people to live their lives as close to 100% as they can, as close as possible. I absolutely love hearing what God is doing in people’s lives as a result of one of my ideas, messages, or even a class/study of some sort that I initiated. I even get excited when someone else initiates a class that is changing perspectives and in turn will change lives. It motivates me so much, to see people get closer to the life God intended for them, a life closer to 100% than they’ve ever had before.

1 comment:

Kristy said...

I'm glad you wrote this post, because I've been thinking about this a lot lately, about what you called in your post my secondary passion. I've been stressed out at times because I want one, but I'm just not sure what that is.

But what I got from post, the good reminder, is that my first passion needs to be Christ. And maybe its okay that I don't know what the secondary passion is, because I need to spend some time focusing on my first passion.

In Crazy Love, Francis Chan shares this great C.S. Lewis quote (I also thought of this quote when I listened to the podcast from your sermon two weeks ago, when you said (paraphrased) that Christ should be the reason for our cause): "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."