We all have things that we are passionate about and would love to spend all of our time on. What’s yours and how did you discover it?

The question of passion is an interesting one to ponder. There are things that I really like – dark chocolate covered almonds, ribs on the bbq, jazz music – and there are things that I really like to do – biking along the Thames River, exploring downtowns of cities – but I wouldn’t want to categorize them as passions.

Many people I know would say that they are passionate about a certain hobby, they can lose themselves in it for hours at a time and this is good. Often times they use these hobbies to bless others – I love seeing this take place.

But when Madison asked me about what I am passionate about, I had little difficulty in bringing to mind what “floats my boat” as the saying goes.

Now, before I state this passion, I want to set it up as not trying to sound “holier than though”, or that I am trying to “give the right answer”, after all, I am a pastor by occupation so perhaps there is an expectation that I’ll give a certain answer to “look the part.”

I have been honing this passion for decades, maybe without even realizing it, and it is only in the past few years that I have truly been able to fully state that it is a passion. It is something that I believe I’ll engage in until the day I move on from this life into the next.

Interestingly, I can live out this passion as a key component of my job which makes it all the more meaningful for me – I get paid to do what I am passionate about; it may be difficult to get me to retire:)

So, what is it?

I am passionate about helping other people find what they are passionate about. Finding out what they were designed to do. Moving to a place of congruency in their lives so that their skills and interests and experience all align.

Does this sound strange? Even as I write it, I’m wondering if this is supposed to be the answer? And yet, I love it. How do I know this is a passion?

1) I have many conversations about it.

I had breakfast with someone this week, and guess what? I guided the conversation into a discussion about his job, what he likes about it, what is difficult, what God may be teaching him in all of it and where it could be leading him. In essence, moving into his area of passion. It was meaningful, for him and for me.

This week, I had my regular Wednesday morning gathering with 3 other guys. The discussion moved into a conversation about where God may be leading them, what passions he has put into them. The glass board in my office was full of diagrams, outlining how they could begin to envision what their future could look like as they embraced God’s design for their lives.

2) I like to read about it.

Call it strange, but instead of a novel, I gravitate to books on mentoring and guiding others in life. Books that help me to help others on their life journey. These books are about helping people build good foundations so that they can enter into their God-given passions.

3) I am told that I do it.

These comments have been made to me more frequently in the past few years. With people I speak with at our church, I am often finding out about them, what they enjoy, what skills they have, how their experiences have shaped them. And then, when I see an opportunity come up at our church or another place in London to serve or a new job that I believe would fit them, I am excited to present the opportunity. Interestingly, I now have people come to me asking who I might know who would fit into a specific volunteer area of service. I thought that everyone does this, however, what I’m learning is that this is a passion of mine that doesn’t necessarily connect with others.

4) I get excited when I see someone experience living in their area of passion

When I speak with someone who just loves what they are doing, I am excited for them. When I am able to help someone move into an area of gifting and passion, to watch from afar how this has given them a new sense of purpose, it makes my heart leap.

I love the scripture 1 Corinthians 12. “There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its parts make up one body.” I have seen too many people moving through life without any thought to how they have been designed. They take on responsibilities because it is the thing to do. But they are missing out on so much. God has designed us all in unique ways. Why would we not want to live into those areas of life that are uniquely made for us?

So, I will continue to be passionate about helping people find their passions. The question is – what are you passionate about?

For the kingdom.

We’re all afraid of something – it’s a pretty normal human reaction. There’s even a part of our brains that is like the homebase to fear. The amygdala is like the emotional control center, with a greater emphasis on the emotion of fear, and then communicates with the rest of the brain to prepare for action. So let’s say for example a spider descends down a string of its web in front of my face. My eyes take in all the shapes and colours in front of me, and my brain categorizes it as ‘spider’. My brain also knows that spiders are to be feared (my brain does, others might like spiders), and they’re usually armed and dangerous. My amygdala lights up like a fireball, and rapidly fires a message to my hypothalamus and nervous system. Everything stops except the fight-flight-or-freeze reaction – in this scenario, it’s usually flight. My pupils widen, a bead of sweat might roll out of my temple, my heart pumps faster, my digestive system takes a pause so all resources can go towards fleeing from the danger zone. Once safety has been accomplished, all systems calm down, and resume normal activity.

I wouldn’t consider myself a fearful person, but put a spider in my face and I might punch you (except when I’m around kids, then somehow I muster up enough bravery to bludgeon the black ball of disgustingness to death. No regrets). There are others things I’m afraid of, like free falling, drowning, and swimming with fish, but that is most definitely not what my dad asked me to write about when he posed the question, “What do you fear?”. I’m also now convinced he wants all of my vulnerabilities to be put on the table considering that two of the three blogs I’ve written thus far cause me to be really transparent – what have I gotten myself into!

But in all seriousness, what do I fear?

The very first thing that popped into my head was not what I was expecting, but I’m hoping that as I write God will reveal to me things I don’t even fully know about myself. Welcome to the journey of my writing process.

So here is it: I fear that I’m never doing enough.

It’s funny because there’s an article that talks about the one-liner for each Myers Briggs type, and for mine it says, and I quote, “Get off your a** and do something”. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought that towards someone else, and even to myself. I live in this constant state of urgency, knowing that my actions have the power to influence lives. I’ve heard enough stories about people growing up without a supportive person, and the opposite of that, to know that simple acts of being present in people’s lives can change everything. I’m constantly thinking of ways to create spaces for the next generation to have a place to recognize their God-given potential (so they can go and do something), and to have a support system of people who love them dearly and see them for who – and Whose – they truly are rather that who the world tells them they are.

This is great and all, and I will forever be striving to act on this passion that God has put on my heart, BUT where it becomes an unhealthy fear is when (1) I carry the burden on my own, convincing myself that I’m the only one in the world to do such a task, and (2) I think I have to do so much to earn my own salvation.

The first point can be explained by a brief emotional breakdown I had a year ago. I had worked myself into the ground with full time schooling, ministry work part time, and volunteering, and all this included trying to pour into all the students I worked with directly – taking them out for coffee, going to their sports games, etc. And then mix in family time, and a social life. My go-go-go normal self became extremely introverted and could no longer function in the world. Thankfully this was only a brief time, knowing that there are many people who have had hard burnout periods, but it proved to be a valuable lesson for me. I don’t have to do everything for everyone. And when I say no to something or someone, I’m not a complete failure at life.

Now for the second point. I’ve always wrestled with the contradicting verses, “It’s only by faith that you’ve been saved” and “Faith without deeds is dead”. Whether consciously or unconsciously, I put heavier weight on the latter. I discovered this year that I believed I had to work for me faith – I had to keep doing things to keep God happy, and make sure He knew that I wanted to actively live for Him. When your subconscious believes that you will only be saved through doing everything possible in this world, the motivation is fear. But maybe that active faith doesn’t mean a literal run? Maybe an active faith means pursue Me; follow Me; let Me do the work.

This is a hard reality for me to learn. My whole being lives actively, and I will forever be willing to call people out of excuses to have a faith that is more literally active, BUT for me I need the constant reminder that the motivation behind my actions can’t be fear. It needs to be based on a love that only comes from the Father, and a faith that let’s God lead the way.