Recently I was at a hotel whose grounds included a lazy river. This is one of the water features where you sit on a tube and float along an artificial river. It’s soothing and relaxing. I actually had some pretty good prayer time drifting along in the afternoon sun, but ultimately I ended up right back where I started. For all the motion and distance there was no progress.
Driving through a national park, it’s OK to pull over to the side and take in the view, but we can’t live there. There is a time to put it in gear and move on. If I am living in a ho-hum zone, I need to get ahold of God’s vision. While the lazy river was a nice break, I don’t want to live there. Too often we drift through life going nowhere. Ephesians 5:14 promises, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Without passion life becomes routine, monotonous, boring. Why bother? Why get out of bed? We drift toward apathy and lethargy. God doesn’t want me to love Him half-heartedly. In Revelations 3:15-17, Jesus warns that if we are luke-warm, he will spit us out. I need to put some muscle into it.
Passion is not automatic. It’s a choice. Everything in life tries to keep me from being passionate about God. We get distracted by work and play, shopping and sports. Conflicts and disappointments drain away our passion.
In the world it’s OK to be passionate about anything except God. I can shout and scream for a rock band and the world says, “Yea, rock on, baby!” I can paint myself blue and sit bare-chested in sub-zero temperatures to yell myself hoarse for a football team and the world says, “You da man! Yea, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.” I say grace over my meal in a restaurant and the world says, “What a fool! He’s just a fanatic, he’ll get over it.” I can be passionate about movies or politics or food or partying and the world is right there with me. I’m passionate about God and the world calls me weird. Matthew 6:24 warns, “No man can serve two masters.” Where does God fit in?
I have gone to church pretty much all my life. I even remember a period in around 4th grade when my mother regularly took me to services in two different denominations. But it wasn’t until age 32 that I discovered passion. Before then I was going to church just because that is what people do. My level of passion has taken a step up at various times: attending Bible school, starting our Bible publishing business, preaching in our county jail, preparing for publication of what you read now. There have also been those periods when the passion waned, when I lost sight of my purpose. Have you noticed how passion jumps quickly but then fades slowly sometimes so slowly that you don’t even notice that it’s leaving?
I’m sure you’ve seen the helium filled latex balloon that is tugging against the string when you first get it but tomorrow it’s lying limply on the floor. Our passion is like that unless we decide to keep the fire. In 2Timothy 1:6, Paul admonished Timothy to “stir up the gift of God which is in you.” Timothy didn’t need a new gift; he needed to reignite the gift he had.
Or maybe you relate better to a hot air balloon. Without the flame it’s just a lifeless sack lying on the ground, but turn on the burner and it takes on a new life, able to soar to great heights. Luke 3:16 says Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It’s the fire of the Holy Spirit that ignites our passion, that empowers us to reach new heights.
I see three reasons why we lose passion:
- Hurt repeatedly. Dr. James Dobson on Focus on the Family describes an experiment that was conducted where a fish tank was built with a clear glass panel in the middle. A large fish was placed on one side and his favorite food, several smaller fish, on the other. Unable to see the glass panel, he went for the other fish. Bam! He backed up and tried again. Same result. Again and again, but finally he quit trying. At that point, the experimenters removed the glass separator and the smaller fish swam around the bigger fish, but he didn’t try to eat them. In his mind they just weren’t available. He could die of starvation surrounded by his favorite dinner because past failures told him no. Sometimes obstacles seem just too big. We have failed too many times. But God says don’t give up.
- Lulled by success. Sometimes we will reach a goal and don’t look beyond it. We find ourselves living off old victories and old successes with no current purpose for our lives. “Oh, for the good ol’ days.” Let me tell you something, the “good ol’ days” weren’t that great. I know, I was there. When the Israelites came up to the Red Sea, Moses said, “Stand and see the salvation of your God. (Exodus 14:13)” Stand, don’t sit down, don’t get comfortable. This is not the time for the La-Z-Boy. God is about to act and I must be ready to follow Him. Get a new vision that will stretch you, challenge you, excite you.
- Lack of self-discipline and focus. Another word for this is lazy. We have a traffic circle near our home. Turn right and it takes us to the main shopping area. Go straight through and we are on the highway to church. So often when I am going shopping I find myself on “auto pilot” going straight because I’m not focused. Our late pastor would say, “Any dead thing can float downstream.” 2Corinthians 1:10 Paul says that it is on God he has set his hope. When we are discouraged or defeated, where are our eyes? Downcast. Psalm 121:1 tells us to lift up our eyes. Remember where to set your hope.
Passion requires:
- Vision. Why does someone find themselves on the lazy river? Because they have lost vision and in losing vision they lose hope. In Acts 20:24 Paul, in the face of persecution and suffering, declared, “None of these things move me.” He had a vision that sustained him.
- Commitment. In Luke 10:27a (Msg) Jesus commands, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion.” Exodus 34:14 says God is passionate about His relationship with us. Let’s have the same attitude in response.
- Endurance. We become stronger because of struggles. When we lean on Him, God will sustain us through the struggles. I can complain about those around me or I can take responsibility. What happened to me may not be my responsibility but what I do about it is.
- Testing. There are times when we make the right choices and from those choices we learn and grow. There are times when we make the wrong choices and from those choices we learn and grow.
God knows my name, He knows my past and He has still called me. Paul, in the name of God, went around persecuting and killing Christians. Yet God redeemed his past. I read a quote recently, “People may write you off because of your past, trying to limit your future. Jesus wrote off your past with His blood to create an unlimited future!” Can there be anything in your past that is too big for God to redeem? Let me give you a hint: NO!
I’ve never been good at foreign languages. I took German in school. I failed the first test. I failed the second test. At that point I had the choice to quit or to dig deeper. So I quit. No, no, I dug down, focused on what needed to be done. I squeaked by with a D but I made it through. It is time to dig deeper. Like a football team down by 2 in the fourth quarter, dig deeper. Get vision. Get hope. Get passion.
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