Passion

I love to be around people who are passionate.  Listen to them.  Watch them.  Notice what they do.  Maybe it is a coach, passionate about his team or a particular game.  Maybe it is a businessperson who is passionate about the goods or services his company offers.  Maybe it is a person who is passionate about some humanitarian cause.  She has devoted hours and hours to this cause.  She seems to come alive when she is talking about the cause.

I love to be around people who are passionate about the things of God.  Nothing artificial here.  Nothing contrived.  These are people who deeply treasure God and and of course, passion is the natural result.  We may express our passion for God differently from one another but passion in some form will be in my heart.

So what is happening when my passion begins to diminish?

Maybe I am tired.  Physically.  Emotionally.  Spiritually.  It could be that I’ve had an exhausting season with too many funerals, meetings, intense conversations, etc.  In the meantime there may have been too little prayer and insufficient time in Scripture.

I may be tired because I have allowed the  joy robbers to get to me.  Have you had an experience like this?  Maybe you were a part of a wonderful Sunday morning worship time that was so meaningful.  Someone’s prayer expressed what was really on your heart.  A song brought you to tears.  A part of the sermon seemed to be just for you.  Maybe you were moved by a significant conversation you had with a visitor immediately after the assembly.  Then—you hear a few people complaining about this or that.  (Some aspect of church life).  Perhaps you found yourself getting caught up in it and you went away feeling low and disheartened.  That has happened to me on a number of occasions through the years.  I’ve not always handled this very well.

Maybe I’m becoming more passionate about things of lesser value.  I’ve seen this happen a number of times. (I’ve also experience this as well).  A person is attracted by the trivial and that becomes his passion.  A certain house this person wants to buy.  A car she is "just dying to get."  A vacation spot.  A television with a mamoth screen that is like no other.  Sometimes, we just lose perspective.  We become boring people because we are wrapping our lives around the trivial.  As a result, we may stay busy, move fast, but the depth of our lives is an inch deep.  We now treasure the trivial and as a result, the passion of our shrunken hearts is centered on the trivial.

This week, my passion is not something I want to dwell on.  No–what I want to dwell on is God.  Treasuring God.  As I treasure God more and more, the passion will come.  It will be the natural overflow of what is happening in my heart.