The Passion of the Christian

Find your purpose. Find your passion.

I hear those phrases said a LOT by unhappy, teen/twentyish Christians this last year or two.

Here's an example: I was listening to a young man who was telling me about a conversation he'd had years before with an elderly missionary. The missionary told him: "Now, you can get a good job, a great wife, and be very content and happy until you reach about 40, then you'll feel like there's something missing. Or you can do what I did and be a missionary." The young man told me, "I can see the first part coming true with me - I have that stuff... I'm afraid of eventually feeling like there's something missing."

Well, I thought on what to advise him. First I had to clear up something that struck me wrong. I asked him, "So... Being a missionary solves all your problems and makes you content?" Not that I'm against missionaries; believe me, I hold them in high respect. But if you're going to be a missionary for the wrong reason, it is WRONG. Be a missionary to spread the Word, not to be your fix-all pill.

Then the young man said the phrase that grates on me like you have no idea: "That was back when I was trying to find my passion."

No. Hold the phone.

You don't find passion. Passion finds you.

There is such an emphasis on finding your passion/purpose/whatever among Christian youngsters in my current sphere of friendship. I blame this idea on people who want to write and sell Christian self-help books, and I don't understand it. Never before in my life had I heard it before going to college, and it struck me as very backward. Same as it grates on my when people ask, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Don't be stuck on the future, people! Be stuck on NOW. NOW is when you're alive!

Let's go back to my beloved book of James. James 4:13-17:

13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

That blunt enough for you? So what is "the good he ought to do?" How about Ecclesiastes 9:10: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."

Whatever your hand finds to do. Anything your hand finds to do. Everything your hand finds to do.

Live this moment for Christ. Think this thought for Christ. Pray this prayer for Christ. Share the Word for Christ. Be the temple for Christ. If you do, your passion, contentment, and peace will find you.