What Is Your Passion?

"The word 'passion' has been hijacked ... Misused and abused ... Emasculated by a feel-good culture of moral relativism ... Prostituted by personal development gurus.  Passion today is understood as 'what excites you, what puts the sparkle in your eyes, the twinkle in your toes.'  The word has become candy for frivolous children when, at its roots, it is meat for dedicated adults."

A few weeks ago as I was preparing to speak in our high school chapel on Biblical compassion, I came across a web posting that began with the words above.  In my presentation on "compassion", I noted that the word itself means "to suffer with" and denotes more than a feeling of sympathy; rather it carries with it a call to action.  Multiple times throughout the gospel accounts we see Jesus was "moved to compassion" closely followed by the action he took to relieve the suffering he saw.  We concluded that Biblical compassion mirrors Christ's example - it is a call to action.

Although there is scant evidence that the author of this website, Stephen Palmer,  identifies as a follower of Christ (in fact some elements elsewhere in his website would argue otherwise), he references Christ frequently and correctly notes that the word "passion" itself was likely coined in the 12th century by religious scholars to describe the sufferings of Christ on the cross. He describes Christ's passion as the "cross-carrying, torture-enduring suffering of a Man who understood how and why to sacrifice immediate pleasure for long-term joy."  He is so close to the truth - if he only understood that "joy" as described in Hebrews 12:1-2 is the joy of presenting his Bride before his Father.

Building on the "suffering" roots of the word passion he defines passion by quoting author Kevin Hall: “Even though it has become popular to define passion as deep or romantic love, the real meaning is being willing to suffer for what you love. When we discover what we are willing to pay a price for, we discover our life’s mission and purpose.”

Palmer concludes: If passion is simply what makes you happy, you’ll quit doing it when it gets tough, when it becomes too risky, when you’re ignored and mocked. Your true passion is -

• what you’re willing to do if it kills you.
• what you stick with even when it’s excruciating, when it’s risky.
• the things you do because you know they’re right; because you know they’ll make a profound difference.
• the things that simmer in the deepest parts of your soul — far beyond what’s fun or what feels good.

What is your passion?  What are you willing to suffer for?