March 19, 2009

Where is my passion?

Today’s devotional reading and the events of last night have me asking questions about my passion. What do I get excited about and how can God use it?

My sister is in town. She does pen and ink hockey art and had a booth at a charity Old Timers’ game. She is passionate about her art and passionate about the Lord Jesus Christ. We watched the game part of the time, but standing in or near the booth was also a delightful experience.

My sister invited two of our adult children to help her. As they interacted with people and each other, I watched her share what God is doing in her life as He guides her small business to success. She has had all kinds of experiences that can only be explained by His voice in her life and is not afraid to tell people about them. If the slightest opportunity arises, she is quick to use it for His glory.

This morning, my devotional reading began with this line: “Everything worthwhile in life is the result of someone’s passion.” It went on to talk about the events in human history that make a difference and that they happen because someone has a deep, consuming desire to fulfill goals. As Christians, our passion and goals should be like the passion and goals of Jesus Christ.
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38)
In a book I have about prayer, the author says that so many Christians are subnormal in their desires and behavior that when a normal Christian comes along, they think he is super-spiritual. In other words, the norm for my life should be compassion for the multitudes, prayer for workers to be involved in reaching them, and as the next chapter of Matthew indicates, being part of the answer to my own prayers.

Yet as today’s devotional says, I live in an age that “tends to dull my sharpness.” Life itself has a way of “obscuring legitimate goals and robbing my faith of fiery power.” It also says that spiritual passion is not the norm, but rather “the norm is not to let Christianity disrupt your lifestyle.”

Instead of letting that happen, the normal Christian life should be one of using your lifestyle as a tool for your passion. I know one man who has a passion for curling and uses his sport to meet and tell others about Jesus. Another uses his love of jet skiing. My sister uses her hockey art.

I like to do several things, art, write, quilt, but my passion in my spiritual life is teaching the Bible. In the command to go and make disciples, I’m drawn to the part that says “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” and would rather teach believers than reach the unsaved.

My evangelism skills are not well developed, and while I feel compassion for the lost (at least most of them), I tend to button up when I’m with them. I’m involved in one group where I could share more than I do, yet I’ve been quiet, enjoying the group and our activities only.

The last line of the reading asks the question: “Is the church only a self-indulgent activity center, content with comfort and prosperity?”

The Holy Spirit echos that same line back to me: “Is your life only a self–indulgent activity center, content with comfort and prosperity, or are you going to let your passion become productive for eternity and for Me?”

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