I enjoy listening to music as I drift to sleep each night. Recently I was listening to an older song by Margaret Becker entitled, “This is My Passion”. While I’ve listened to this song hundreds of times over the years, I was particularly struck on that night by the refrain of the chorus where she sings: “This is my passion, holiness, holiness”. The poignancy of the lyric is driven home by Margaret’s earnest vocal. What if we could say with conviction that the passion of our life was holiness? Yet, isn’t this what Jesus calls each of us to in our own lives?
As a life coach, I’ve repeatedly heard people say that they aren’t sure what their passions are. This should never be true for a follower of Jesus. If we endeavor to be His disciple then we must be obsessed with making our lives look like His. His passions should be our passions. If you’re a Christian in search of your own passion, simply examine the things by which Jesus was driven. If you are unsure where to start, let me recommend three familiar passages to regular readers of this blog: Matthew 25:31-46, Isaiah 58:6-7, and James 1:27.
In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus speaks very plainly about the things that He holds dear to His heart. He is concerned about the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned. He said that if we care about these people then He will welcome us into His kingdom. If we turn away from those about whom He is passionate, He will turn us away from entering Heaven.
Isaiah 58:6-7 reveals further passions of God. In this passage we discover that Jesus is passionate about bringing justice to the oppressed and taking care of your own family. In James 1:27, we learn Christ desires that we look after widows and orphans while keeping ourselves away from sin. These are the things Jesus was passionate about. This is where our passions should lay as well.
Doing the will of God in your life is no more than pursuing His passions with the unique blend of gifts and talents He has entrusted to you. We overcomplicate things. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of books have been written to help you find God’s specific will for your life. All you really need to do is become passionate about the things He is, and the rest will take care of itself.
Ask God to break your heart with the things that break His. Ask that He ignite His passions within you and to give you the wisdom of how to use your gifts and talents to pursue those passions. Then you can, like Margaret Becker, say that holiness is your passion. As you pursue God and act on your shared passions, you will find yourself walking and living in His will. This should be the passion of us all.