An addendum to yesterday’s rant:

Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.

Miguel de Unamuno

I was just rereading my notes from Pastor Tim’s sermon from Sunday, specifically the section where he was discussing what it looks like to be a people connected. The text we were looking at (Romans 12:9-18) spoke of the many ways in which we are to have love for one another: sincerity, devotion, sacrifice, humility. But the one that stuck with me was passion.

Passion is something I’ve been exploring in a big way lately. My passion for music is evident, but it wasn’t until the last few months that I began to wonder where my passion for music comes from. That’s a whole book in itself so I won’t go there. But, through all my wondering, I’ve begun to understand my faith in a new way.

Understanding one’s unique passion further solidifies the idea that God makes each of us as individuals, not as cookie-cutter images of people that came before us. To understand one’s passion is the foundation required for one to understand what God made him to be.

I see a widespread lack of passion in my generation, in the church and in the population as a whole. So many kids are getting caught in the go-to-college, get-a-job, start-a-family mentality — or, in the church’s case, kids feeling forced into some facet of full-time, part-time or “volunteer” ministry before they understand their own spiritual gifts — that they never have a time where they come to understand their passions. Especially in college, students must decide on a major, which dictates their course of study. Heaven help the students whose passions span multiple subjects or cover ground that no university will ever teach about. (Had I stuck with school and finished a degree in computer science, I’d probably not have had a chance to stop and wonder about any of this myself.)

I don’t know the solution to this issue, but it’s frustrating to see so many people living unfulfilled, passionless lives because they haven’t ever had the opportunity to explore their own passion.

Anyway, I’m ranting. Coming back to Tim’s message: If we cannot understand our own God-given passions, how can we ever hope to understand how to be passionate about the people we are supposed to be so closely connected with?