Passion

I'm reading a book called "The Promise of a Pencil" by Adam Braun. It is an extraordinary book about a wonderful response by this young man to a global need. I won't say more because I believe you should read it. But I do want to quote something Mr. Braun wrote about passion. He was in his early years of his career, which he did not like; seeking to make lots of money in New York City before going and doing what he wanted, but a friend told him that that was the wrong approach. If he worked for twenty years and then tried to do his passion, he's have children and a mortgage. So, that night he was invited to hear the New York Philharmonic. He had never been to the symphony before and the sounds of that night mesmerized him. What intrigued him was that as people performed they left the stage to thunderous applause, and then an oversized man sat at the grand piano to play. Mr. Braun wondered if just one person could stir the same wonderful response that the entire symphony had done.

"The pianist began playing the concerto, starting with soft melodies that soon became soaring harmonies. Thunderous sounds poured from the piano. This man was crushing the keys and swaying with such force that the few hairs on his head flew from side to side. As an audience, we hung on his every note. I closed my eyes and could hear the passion he brought to his craft. I thought, if I could feel as strongly about any one things in the world as this man feels about his piano, I know I would be fulfilled.

Whatever you do in your role in the church, are you doing it with passion? Are you fulfilling God's call upon your life as well as stirring something in the people with whom you work? If you're a Sunday school teacher or small group leader, can the others in your class or group feel the passion you have for God and for the subject matter you are sharing/teaching? If you're a pastor, when you preach, do you preach with passion that shares the contagious and excitement that should be in every message of good news?

Passion is what comes from the deep rooted love we should have for what we do because of the great love we have for God and God has for us.