Passion

I spent some time during the last week of December and the first week of January doing what many red-blooded American males do - I watched a bunch of college bowl games. Of course, each game came with extensive pre-game conjecture. As the analysts and experts talked about the upcoming game, they would often speculate about the motivation and mental mindset of the team. Remember, these young men had not played a game in a month. Some of them had lost coaches during that time (because they were either fired or changing to another school)or had a coach retire and so everyone wondered whether this would help or hurt the team. Other teams, for various reasons, had questions about how they would do. What would their mental mindset be? One thing that kept coming up was that the experts would say that the team that played with the most passion had the best chance of winning their game. Passion was seen as a crucial element.

Well, the last couple of weeks I've been doing what many red-blooded American geeks do - following the political caucuses and primaries. There is no end to the commentary and analysis of each candidate's strategy. But, again, I've been impressed by how much "passion" comes into the picture. Many think that everything turned around for Hillary in New Hampshire when she broke down a little, showed some emotion, and expressed some passion.

Now there is no doubt that some, if not much, of the football and political passion is misdirected, but there is no mistaking the importance of passion. In fact, passion is critical in our serving the Lord. Romans 12:11 says, "Not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Did you catch the word "fervent?" It is a word that means to be zealous, enthusiastic, on fire, yes-passionate. Our service to the Lord is to be energetic, driven by a sincere passion for the Lord. Certainly, if people can get passionate about football and politics, they can be super passionate about the Lord and fervent in their service to Him. Think about the effort that football players and politicians put in to what they do. Shouldn't we be all the more passionate about the Lord?

You may be wondering about the picture above. They are the initials "GW" (and no they don't stand for George W.) They stand for George Wishart. These initials are in the street right in front of the ruins of the old castle in St. Andrews, Scotland. George Wishart was a passionate preacher of the word of God in the 1500's. He preached the true gospel that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. For this reason, the Catholic Church branded him a heretic and those initials mark the spot where George Wishart was burned at the stake. Literally, he was on fire for the Lord. He denied himsef, took up his cross, and followed Christ.

I pray that in our time, and in our country, the Lord would raise up many passionate believers.