Passion: our obsession, our focus, and what we are consumed by.
I have considered myself to be a passionate person for a long time now. I came into my DTS wanting to break through the lie that there is only so much of Christ that you can have. I wanted to get past limitations. I had a perspective that I needed to work on areas that I was lacking in such as pride, self-centeredness, and my apathetic efforts towards my relationship with God. Little did I know that I was ignoring an area in my life that I thought was already good enough: passion.
By ignoring this area of my life I subconsciously believed that there was a limitation for having passion for Jesus and that I couldn’t have any more. I am totally extroverted, so the way I viewed passion had to do a lot with outward expression: jumping, dancing, and shouting for example. I focused so much on the action of others to determine their passion. I couldn’t understand why other people couldn’t be more fired up for God like me. “If people tend to sit down and be more quiet, they must not be real active in their faith,” I thought. I allowed myself to judge others based on my version of passion. I have measured my passion for Jesus by how I have had to work for it, which is dangerous, because works lead me to compare myself to others.
My relationship with God was a roller coaster of switching between massive energy and being reserved in shame.
My relationship with God was a roller coaster of switching between massive energy and being reserved in shame. There would be seasons of my life where I had no passion for God. I would feel stagnant and numb, which would make me vulnerable to the enemy. I would fall into familiarity that made my soul fall asleep to Jesus. After that week, I realized I had been relying on my own strength for the way I was passionate about God. I measured passion by how much energy I muster up for Him, hoping He would approve.
You see, passion isn’t measured by how much energy you yourself can express for God; your passion is determined by what you are motivated by and what you focus on the most. Therefore, you don’t have to entirely be outwardly expressive to be passionate for Jesus. What we are motivated by isn’t always God, is it? Sometimes we are motivated by our idols, which we can get very defensive of. Idols grant us instant gratification and comfort from the world, which isn’t eternally satisfying and leads to death. When we ask for God’s direction for our lives, it must filter through our idols first. We have lost our passion for Jesus when it is replaced by something else that we focus on or what we’re motivated by.
Passion isn’t measured by how much energy you yourself can express for God; your passion is determined by what you are motivated by and what you focus on the most.
Every now and then we lose passion for Jesus, and there are indicators for that. One is when we are tired because we are using our own strength. When the task itself is greater than the one we are serving, we probably have lost passion for Jesus. Another one is when we have little emotion or strength in our expressions of love. God is bigger than our feelings, and he deserves our praise. We cannot allow feelings to govern our lives. Also, when we no longer feel thirsty for God because of entertainment, we probably have lost passion for Jesus. We’re always passionate about something, and we lose passion in God when we become self-absorbed.
Think about what you are passionate for here on Earth. For me, it is sports and coaching basketball. I spend more time thinking about sports than anything else because it is my obsession. I feel like I can consume an unlimited amount of sports through my thoughts and actions. These are the passions of my heart that I feel God has put inside of me, and yet I cannot let sports take the throne of my life because that belongs to Jesus. If I let sports become an idol, it ends up consuming me. If Jesus is on the throne, I will end up being consumed by his presence. Can we embrace Jesus for who he really is? Not our own version of Jesus. Can we be satisfied with the real Jesus? What are people catching from us? Because passion for Jesus is incredibly infectious.
Written by Kristian Lundberg
