Passion is a Seed

This past weekend I heard one of the most profound statements of my entire life. It came by way of a dear friend of mine, whose life mission is to declare the love and knowledge of God and has been giving him self to this very endeavor over the years. The words had scarcely left his lips that evening when they sharply pierced my heart and sent what felt like a wave of truth through my entire being. His statement was this. Passion over time looks like faithfulness.

Do you know what this statement means for me? It revolutionizes my finite thinking and minimal understanding of what passion really is and what it should resemble after years of being seasoned and simmered. Upon hearing these words I knew that I had not rightly discerned the definition of passion in my own life. Not only in reference to my heart toward specific causes or people but especially in regards to my heart posture toward the Lord and his bleeding heart towards me. Passion is not only an emotion but rather, it is also a seed.

When I survey the things in my life that I have desired to display passion about, I see a frustration in my spirit, due to my inability to maintain the type of intensity that I think would be required. I have always thought that passion equaled this sort of violent, forward-moving action that fueled and burned itself, all at once. I guess in my mind it resembled something akin to flames of fire. And is some ways, my concepts were not so far off. I do believe that passion can be resembled as such. However, I had no reference for what that flame would be considered once it died down; once it was reduced to mere smothering embers, almost entirely quenched by the flood waters of this life. Could it really be called passion if it wasn't roaring with emotion and being fed with zealous energies and efforts? I dare to say it could…and it is.

I believe that many of us in our faith walk have dismissed our more recent yet sincere inclinations toward God for one reason or another. Perhaps we had an intense love for the Lord at some point in our lives that we are constantly measuring ourselves against; that we were never able to fully regain or rekindle. If you're like me, you may have heaped condemnation on your own head for not being able to feel the emotions that you once had for God. This has also been a place that I have been trying to revisit in my marriage. Who doesn't want to have the same passion they once had in the beginning stages of new love? But I now realize that it doesn't have to be a striving for the emotions that were attached to that sweet time but rather, a conscious commitment of walking out the devotion that has come as a result of that passion. I have concluded that if passion cultivates faithfulness, then passion must be a seed that is sown. And I do find this to be the case in the relationships in my life, and most certainly with Christ. With assurance he has sown a promise into me, through the fierce love story of the cross, and caused my heart to follow him. It's only by God's grace that I am still a lover of Him. Even when my heart has gone wayward, His passion for me has kept me from wandering off to the point of no return. Truly His love for me is the ultimate picture of passion and dying devotion, translated into an eternal faithfulness that I can never escape. I realize that there is a desire in the human heart to possess passion. I am continually in awe of those who have zeal in their hearts about whatever it is they set before them. It's truly admirable. And yet, if it were to be all about emotion, they would not be able to maintain it lifelong. But I am learning that passion is so much more than a fleeting feeling. Sometimes it looks like a husband, committed to raising his children and providing for his wife. Other times it might look like an employee that is overlooked and underpaid and yet, continues on with the job that God has blessed him with. Many times it looks like the martyr, whose life was fully given unto death. I believe these to be pictures of passion, preserved by God's grace, not yet killed. Surely it suffers much and endures all things.

Passion is what has given us life and passion is what will cause us to triumph, friends, even to the end. This is the passion of the Christ. This is the faithfulness of Christ; from everlasting, to everlasting. It will never grow cold. It will never lose momentum. It is eternal.