Let me tell you about my last 5 days.
One long weekend. A remote lake retreat with no wi-fi and no cell coverage. 50 students from all over the globe. 21 different languages spoken. Faces of all colors, ethnicities and backgrounds. 10 US volunteers that only speak English. 4 professional speakers. 4 intensive leadership driven learning elements. Understanding. Misunderstanding. Laughter. Tears. Listening. Talking. Strangers becoming best friends. Late nights. Exhaustion. First times. New adventures. Facing fears and overcoming them. Being challenged and challenging each other. Games. Team building. Stretching yourself. Expanding your thoughts and your beliefs. Learning of new people and new cultures. Learning new languages. Trying new foods. Trying new ideas. But above all….love. Loving each other. Loving someone you’ve never met. Loving someone from halfway around the world. Real love. Innocent, genuine, gentle, honest and true. Loving someone not for the way they look, the nation they represent, or the language they speak, but loving them for what’s on the inside. A beautiful soul that was created and is cherished by the maker of everything in this world. A maker that wants a connection with every soul He made. A maker that has an abundant joy filled life for all. My weekend was all about the love. Sharing the love.
I spent many moments during the planning, setup and operation of this camp pondering my position here. Exactly one year ago I was an unknown volunteer at this very camp. Fresh back from Maui and sharing the love with the people of Hawaii. God had made amazing connections at this camp a year ago, as a result, we served on our first trip to Hong Kong, and as a result of that trip, life changed. It’s funny how quickly God can change your life when you let Him.
Here I stand one year later, operating the entire camp I first experienced and fell in love with 365 days ago. How does life take these turns? How did it happen for me and how can it happen for you and for every other person that feels trapped in a lifeless, soulless rut of existence? I’ve got two words for you; passion and purpose.
Passion is a greatly overused word today. I have a passion for tacos. Misused. I have a passion for my hobby. Misused. I have a passion for my family. Even here misused. You see to really understand passion, not just human passion but Godly passion in our lives, you must understand direction. A different direction. A new direction. Your God given passion rarely takes you where you think it will. To embrace your God given passion is to embrace newness.
God has given us all a passion. The whole trick is not just discovering your God given passion but releasing it. But who has the power to unleash it? Well…you do. We all have a tendency to self-sabotage our passion. Fear of failure, fear of what others will think of us, and an unwillingness to release and let go of the damaging self-doubt that we all struggle with. If I truly embrace and operate solely based on my passion, I’ll fail, and people will think I’m foolish. Or will they?
Our passion areas can be greatly affected by outsiders. Unsupportive parents, fearful spouses or discouragement during your formative years from teachers, mentors, and extended family and friends that you value greatly. All of these can combine into a deadly concoction that when partaken regularly can kill passion, kill dreams, and eventually cripple purpose.
So what to do? Embrace your passion. What has God built into you that gives you goosebumps when you think deeply about it? What has God built into you that consumes your thoughts more than any other? What passion consumes your thoughts and dreams and makes you doodle on paper and talk about it with strangers? Passion is not merely simple recognition, but a journey of self-discovery and a realization process to set it free. We keep a tight lid on our passion, and it cannot truly serve a purpose all bottled up. Take the lid off your passion. Set it free. Embrace it and let God use it to do what it is meant to do…Bless others and help them to discover the Lord Jesus Christ.
For me I thought my passion was more than a bit silly in that it was not what the world deemed as a highly marketable commodity. You see, there is a big difference between helping people and helping people make money. I spent my career in management and leadership doing just the latter. Helping companies make more money. And not to sound arrogant, but I was good at it. I helped make a lot of companies a lot of money, and of course along the way made a lot myself. But that was not my passion, I thought it was, but not so. It was a talent, NOT a passion.
Deep down, I wanted to help people discover what I had discovered. A passion that would drive you to do that one thing, even if it were for free. In fact, that is my favorite definition of passion. An activity that you love so much you would be willing to do it for free. Many times this is the prerequisite God uses. Are you so deeply involved in the passion area that He built into you that you find yourself doing it for free? God is watching and in His nodding approval, He recognizes your journey of moving in a direction of serving Him without payment and He bestows more opportunities upon you to grow more fully in your passion. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much...” Luke 16:10a
I embraced my passion to a degree where it led me to Maui to serve and help others and I was doing it for free. That was a huge step for me in confirming to myself that God was bigger than what made sense to my small human mind. He had much grander plans for my passion than society could possibly imagine. You see truly following your passion should never make much sense. If you’re doing life the world’s way, it will make perfect sense to most. But if you’re doing life God’s way, it will baffle most. We were never created or meant to think like God or to fully understand God. Stop trying.
So, passion is great but where does purpose fit in? If passion is the heart, then purpose is the hands. As James says, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) A great passion in your life that lies dormant is a great waste indeed. This was my story for years and I see it in other’s lives every day. People that have a lid on their passion areas because the evil one has successfully sown in seeds of doubt, fear, and failure. Speaking of failure, we spoke a lot about that in one of our learning elements this weekend. I’ve got a news flash for you, you are going to fail…at a lot of things, and a lot of times. Get use to it. Don’t fear failure but learn to embrace it. Just because you fail you are NOT a failure. Failure is a natural part of life that builds us, increases our character and it is God’s way of making us more like Christ. Remember, our goal on this planet is to love God, love others, tell others of Christ, and continually strive to become more like Christ. If you are not changing dramatically today, you are not becoming more like Christ. He is perfect, we are not, we have a lot of changing to do.
So, passion is in the soul and purpose is in the hands. Your passion should move your hands. Your passion should ignite your soul into action in such a way that you cannot help but have your hands spurred into action. That doesn’t mean you try to go get a job in your passion area and do it for money. It doesn’t mean you open a business in your passion area and try to make it your career so you can buy a big house and a corvette. I’ve seen so many people sully their passion because they try to make a profit off of it. Stop it. Your passion comes from God and God has much bigger plans for it than just making money. The American obsession with money is a tool that is being used greatly by satan. Don’t fall prey to this. God gave you a passion and He gave you a purpose. When you discover them, more than likely you will be shocked, dismayed, confused and doubtful, I was. But do not fear and do not be anxious about your tomorrow, God is your guide and He goes before you. He will be so happy to see you embrace what He made you to be…a creature full of passion for His people that will find a purpose and work in it tirelessly to bring Him Glory and tell all of His Son, Jesus Christ.
For me this weekend felt like a tuning fork being tapped. I am in harmony with my maker. I have discovered my passion and God has shown me the purpose in that passion. I love the people of the world and I love these students. And through a miracle of God, I spent the weekend with students of the world, simply sharing….sharing the love.
Passion and purpose. God is good.
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