Passion

“Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”” - John 2:17 NLT

Like yesterday, let’s begin today by asking the questions, “What’s your passion? What’s keeping you from doing it?”

What is it that you enjoy doing or being a part of more than just about anything?

For me, one of my passions is basketball. Whether playing, coaching, refereeing, or watching, I love basketball. Have since I was three years old. Some people might say I was passionate about it.
For awhile I had lost that passion. Still played but it was just playing. I had allowed something or someone to steal my passion. And thus, I was just kind of done for a while.

Then my kids started playing. And the passion and love for the game returned. I loved coaching them and/or watching them play. At least some of that passion was handed down from generation to generation. Now today, I love training and coaching other kids to somehow instill that passion into them.

The question that we (and I) have to ask ourselves is this, “Do we glorify God with our passion? Or do we glorify ourselves, if we glorify anything at all?”

When playing or coaching or watching, am I bringing glory to God?

And honestly, I have to say, not always. Sometimes it more about me or my kids or whatever else might be happening on the floor than bringing glory and honor and praise to my God.

So, in that case, my passion for basketball can outweigh and get in the way of my passion for God.

How can that be, how can we, or rather I, allow anything in our lives to outweigh our love and passion for Jesus?

At my house and on the teams that I have coached, we have always said that we wanted to “glorify God through how hard we play, how well we do, and how much fun we have doing it.”

Sometimes we have to do more than say it... we have it to show it. I have to show it. I have to live what I say I believe.

We are called to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Called to become more like Him. Called to be passionate about Him and the things He is passionate about, first and foremost.

Even above anything else we might be passionate about. Even above basketball.

Keep the Faith... Carpe Diem


Photo by AJ Smith