Day 56

What Is Your Passion?

Hosea 7:6b, “Their passion smolders all night; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire” NIV.

Recently, in my travels, I noticed a large transfer truck with peppers of all kinds painted all over it – bell peppers, hot peppers, and red peppers, yellow and orange peppers. The words “Passion for Peppers” was also painted on both sides of the truck. You sure couldn't miss the message it conveyed.

I began to wonder what it would be like to have our passions printed all over our vehicles or on our person as we traveled through life. What is your passion in life? Has it changed over the years? Probably so, I know mine has.

What does passion mean anyway? Funk and Wagnall’s Dictionary defines it as: “Intense or overpowering emotion; an eager outreaching of mind toward some special object; fervid devotion”. So what is on your mind most of the time or to what do you devote most of your time? Maybe that is what you are most passionate about.

Your passion can come out of your own sense of shame or pain. You might be fervently devoted to anti-abortion issues, or mental illness, or autism, or drug addiction, or a hundred other things by which you have had personal experience. You don’t often have a passion for something unless it has affected you in some way. I know I wouldn't have a heart for the families of prodigal’s/prisoners unless I had walked through it myself. I wouldn't have empathy for those afflicted by mental illness had I not experienced it in our family.

Our passion may come out in words or actions, but it usually does come out. If we give ourselves to our work people may see that as our passion. If we think and participate in sports all the time, that may become our passion. If we give of ourselves to a particular cause that likely comes from a passion. Something doesn't usually become our passion unless we have experienced it or been touched by it.

Examine your heart and pinpoint your passion. How are you living it out on a daily basis? How are you using that passion for God’s plan and purpose to touch and influence others you come in contact with throughout your day?