When I was growing up my family belonged to a growing Wesleyan Church in Pinellas Park, Fl. It was the days when the idea of mega-church was just starting to take root in the evangelical world. My family was all-in at this Church and most of my very fondest memories are connected to the people and that place.
When I think of PPWC, my mind takes me back to the leadership, clergy and lay, who infused so much time and energy into what they were doing. It was the first time I had ever seen people believe in something to such a degree that it seemed to drive them. It wasn’t a job, it was a passion. When I think of those folks, I can’t help but think of my friend Paul Priore. Paul was our “Pastor of Music Ministries” but Paul was so much more than singing and playing instruments. Paul was a visionary – he saw (and continues to this day) to see possibility in people and ideas that, on the outset, look ridiculous.
Paul saw that very thing in me. Paul took this little 8 or 9 year old and filled me with confidence and possibility. He encouraged something that was laying dormant in me to come out and embrace life. Paul taught me more than I will ever be able to remember or write down in a blog post. He taught me how to sing, hold a mic, clean up the mics. He taught me stage presence, and acting. He gave me a love for falling into a character. But more than all that, He taught me passion.
Now, you may be thinking, “passion can’t be taught, it’s experienced.” You’d be right. I mean I can fire someone up with words, but passion ins’t something we can fake – at least not for any substantial time. Passion is something that is caught – it’s not put on and taken off like a coat, it’s something that lives deep inside and at the right moment it comes boiling out from within.
Passion is not energy or enthusiasm – it can have those traits, but it’s more. Passion is connection. Passion is belief that is released into action. Passion is being so aware of something that you are moved – emotionally, physically, spiritually. Passion is really about the merging of those streams into ONE – Passion, especially one that is a life-long passion, is more about a becoming than a behaving.
I’m sure we’ve all seen the dangers of passion. Passion left unchecked can be blind. Obviously, passion can be destructive and can hurt people. Passion can be corrupted to serve desires, or “our passions” and when that happens Passion becomes a real problem. This type of selfish passion can be a runaway train. This passion cares not for truth or really anything but self.
This is the real danger with passion. It can start out being a real internal move, but it can take over. A lust for the feeling of passion can replace a true passion with nothing more than smoke and mirrors. It happens inside and outside of the church all the time. But what happens when our Passion is God’s Passion? What happens when what energizes us is the release of God inside? And what happens when we choose to abide in such a way that our Passion is connected and coached and mentored and released in unison with the Church? Revolution, that’s what happens, not revival, but a whole shift in being.
I get comments all the time about my “passion” and I’m honored that people see this in me. But I’m also very aware that my passion has to not just be some concocted mask that I wear. It must be part of my abiding. It must be a daily dive into the stream of life that connects me to the ONE who is the giver of life and passion. My passion can’t be a move of Jim, but must be a whisper of the Spirit within.
There are many days when I don’t wake up all jittery and excited (this morning being one of them). There are times when my connection time with God “feels” very flat and rote. There are days when I study and I engage and all I really want to do is find a quiet place and rest. But all that doesn’t have to zap passion. I may not really feel all that passionate, but it doesn’t mean that my passion has to come again some other day. It does mean that I need to pause, admit where I am, and ask that I be open to the moment when God may move, when the passion within is stoked and let loose.
I’m so thankful for the lessons that Paul taught me, but even more, I’m thankful for the way he modeled passion for God and for God’s Kingdom. I’m thankful that he engaged, even on days when snotty little 11 year old jimmy wasn’t at his best. I’m thankful that he showed me what abiding looked like and how I could let that abiding come pour out of me at just the right moment.
I hope that I will be able to share that kind of life with another and that you can do the same. May we not feign excitement and call it passion, but may we be moved by the LOVE of a God that calls us to action. May we be swept up in the beauty of a Kingdom that transforms us beyond our natural capacities. May we find ways to join with others to that His Passion isn’t replaced with our passions. And even when we don’t feel all that energized or enthusiastic, may we find ourselves whispering to our great and very near God a prayer of abiding. And as we lean in to hear the whisper, may His Passion move us all over again.
Grace and Peace
No comments
Great words, Jim– and you are so right! There are times when the spark may not be more than a glow and times when it is a roaring blaze. But we have to abide in the spirt, “wait on God” if you will, and we can know that the intensity of the spirit will explode again. I believe that that’s the surest way we can “test” our own faith– by knowing that the “weak” days will pass and be succeeded by even stronger faith. That’s our “blessed assurance.” It starts with us as fumbling, bumbling people and, through commitment and perseverance, ends at the cross. Thanks for expressing our faltering human condition, as well as the ONLY thing that can give it relevance and worth, so well!