Corinthians 3 Thursday: Pursuing Passion

Last week we talked about values, what ours are, and why it's important to define them. This week we're talking about passion.

Did you hear me? I said PASSION.

In Christian Coaching, Collins says: 

Your passion is what fires you up. It is a driving force that can give your life its greatest energy and fulfillment. If you get in touch with your passion (or passions) and let it motivate you in healthy directions, passion can be a powerful influence for good. It can invigorate your life and raise you to higher levels of achievement and self-satisfaction. If you ignore your passion or let it fade, your life becomes duller, emotionally flatter, less fulfilled, and sometimes tinged with apathy. Like a speech or a sermon without passion, life without passion can be boring, colorless, and uninspiring. 

So, live with passion and be invigorated, or live without it and let your life be dull and flat. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

But, as a Christian, is passion for anything other that serving God self-serving? Absolutely not! As long as your passion is in-line with the word of God, then it should be seen as a gift from Him!

Bruce Wilkinson, author of The Dream Giver says:

God has put a driving passion in you to do something special. Why wouldn't he? You are created in his image - the only person exactly like you in the universe. No one else can do your dream. (This is actually a quote Collins provides in Christian Coaching). 

Here's the deal, not everyone can be "in ministry;" it just isn't plausible. However, everyone can minister where they are, and there's no better way to do that then to pursue a God-given passion.

So, whether you eat or drink,

or whatever you do, 

do all to the glory of God. 

1 Corinthians 10:31

Lead a life worthy of your calling,

for you have been called by God.

Ephesians 4:1

So what is your passion?

Some people know what their passion is right away. They immediately know the subjects or activities that ignite their souls.

Then their are people like me. I've been a mom since I was 19. Now, as a mom with four children and one on the way, I'm lucky if I can find an ounce of energy or passion when I fall in bed with my husband at night, and I adore him! Now you're telling me I'm supposed to figure out some other passion?!

Luckily, Collins gives some great suggestions for finding out exactly what your passion is. 

• Ask somebody who knows you well to identify your passions.
• Think of times in your life when you felt exuberant and excited to be alive. What might this say about your passion?
• When you were young and your parents could not find you, what did they assume you were doing? What does this say about your passion?
• If you had no limitations in terms of money or time, what would you like to do?
• Look at your environment. Does this reveal what really interests and excites you?
• Search the Scriptures, wait, and pray that God will reveal his passion for your life.

I suggest implementing the last suggestion before pursuing the rest. We should always seek God in prayer and in His Word, particularly when we're looking for His guidance.

When I performed the tasks above, one answer screamed the loudest: books.

Josiah and Destiny said "books;" when I was young and quiet for a long time, my parents knew I was probably somewhere reading; my home is filled with books. 

Books, books, and more books. I love books. When I go Barnes and Noble, being surrounded by all the authors' words, imaginations, and experiences fills me with an electricity I can feel from my scalp to my tiptoes. That's a tell-tale sign of passion, my friends.

If you're thinking the same thing I was when I realized this, then you're thinking, "We've crowned our new Mrs. Nerd Universe 2014, whose overwhelming passion in life is...books."

And that's probably true. I am a nerd, and I'm cool with that. However, upon further examination, there's a deeper passion there. Like a fraction, we need to reduce this to its simplest form: words.

I don't just love books, I love words.

I love to write them, speak them, sing them, read them, hear them. My main love language is even Words of Affirmation.

Words, words, words...I loooooove words. They energize me and ignite a fire somewhere deep in my soul.

When I can't sleep at night or feel very passionately about a certain subject, I write books, blog posts, and speeches in my head. I dream of delivering messages God has laid on my heart to huge crowds of people. I dream of changing the world for Christ through the words I write and speak.

God gave me words.

All that having been said, that's probably enough words from me for the day.

It's your turn! What are your passions? If possible, try to think beyond family. As moms, we are passionate about our kids, but I feel very strongly that we should have other passions, as well...if for no other reason than to teach children how to pursue theirs.

If you're just now joining us, Corinthians 3 Thursdays are designed to help us find our pursue our individual callings based upon two Corinthians verses: 1 Corinthians 3:8-11 and  2 Corinthians 3:17-18. As  guide, w're using the book Christian Coaching by Gary Collins.For more information, you can visit this post or any of the earlier Corinthians 3 Thursday posts below:

Corinthians 3 Thursday Post 1: Clarifying Values

Please link up or share your thoughts in the comments section! Feel free to grab and share my button, too!

Visit With An Old Friend

Once again, I'm going to have to make this post kind of quick...but that's my life right now.

I had to do something last weekend for a Government paper that I hadn't done in years...I actually set foot in a library.  I felt like an idiot because I actually had to remind myself of how the library worked (plus, I was at the Main Street Library and I'm not at all familiar with that one).  Seriously folks, I actually had to remind myself of the different sections of a library and the fact that I needed to look the call number up...it actually took me a few minutes to remember the term "call number."  I needed to listen to that dang Dewey Decimal rap the kids keep playing on youtube (Disclaimer: this WILL get stuck in your head, and you will sound like an idiot going around rapping about the library).

I felt guilty...like I had abandoned a friend and then run into them again on the street.  Or maybe, more accurately, like I had abandoned them and then had to call them because I needed something. 

Anyway, once I re acclimated myself to my surroundings I made my way to the reference area and remembered what it felt like to do real research...with books.  I really do think the internet has spoiled us.  The place was crawling with people because they were having some sort of event, so it was really hard to concentrate.  Finally, I was done in the reference section, upstairs, and needed to go back downstairs to find a regular non-fiction book.  I couldn't find the section at first...and then I saw another room behind glass doors.  It looked like some off-limits area...like Area 51 of the public library.  I thought "there's no way this is just the non-fiction section."  I opened the door expecting an alarm or something, but was greeted me was something both familiar and unexpected:

Silence...

and the smell of old books.

I love books.  Barnes and Noble is one of my favorite stores, and I could spend hours in there taking in the magic of being surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of people's words, thoughts, and feelings.  Anyone ever seen the movie "Inkheart" where the books whisper they're secrets and contents to Brendan Frasier and his daughter?  It's like that...only, ya know...without audible whispering. 

Even more than that, though, I love old books.  The feeling of being connected to all the hands that once touched the pages and became the story...the Never-Ending Story.  Old books touch my heart and my mind and...*sigh* I don't know.  I wish I could describe it. 

I think it's the quiet part of my soul.  I am loud and social and happy and joyful and giggly and boisterous...but here, in this quiet place, with only the sound of the librarian looking at microfiche (yeah...remember that?!), I remembered the quiet part of me and embraced it.  I could still see the other side...I could look through the glass doors and see the activity, knowing that is a part of me, too, but for just a while I relished the silence and solitude.  I took a minute to take in the feel of the books...the large, old leather bound volumes at the top of the shelves and the volumes wrapped in paper and string to try to preserve their already worn pages.

I did my research and then joined the rest of the world again.  I left the quiet part of me and rejoined the ruckus, but I'll tell you this...this old friend and I are going to visit much more often. :)