What Do You Really Care About?

By John Stallings

I’m not asking you if you like chicken wings or quiet walks on the beach.

I’m asking, “What is your passion?” What pulls you out of bed in the morning & keeps you going when there’s very little in the outward circumstance to encourage you? What can make you voluntarily burn the midnight oil? What would you do without getting paid? What would you sacrifice blood sweat & tears for?

I’m talking about hunger, thirst, desire, fire, passion & a drive for meaning & achievement in life.One dictionary defines passion as “Intense, driven, overmastering feeling of conviction, ardent affection, devotion to some activity, deep desire or interest.”

PASSION comes from the Greek word Pascho which means “to suffer,” or “to sacrifice,” & is a requirement if we are to be truly successful at any enterprise. There must be a “fire in the belly” that will catapult us past all the impediments that life throws at us. When you think of successful people in any field, you automatically think of passion.

For years, one of my favorite sports figures has been Tiger Woods. Because of the recent exposure of his shady double life, Tiger can and will be used as a cautionary tale of hidden sin being brought to light as well as reaping what we sow. He certainly deserves it. Where his career will go after his recent fall God only knows but I think you’ll agree that up until the exposure of the scandalous goings on and marital shipwreck, he was a study in passion for the sport of golf.

Tiger’s late father, who was a man passionate about golf, started exposing Tiger to the game at the age of three. Tiger’s dad would take him out to practice every day for two hours. The passion his father had rubbed off on Tiger, & he actually lived to totally transform the game. Tiger even got me interested in the game! I can now sit and watch it for hours on end when before, I couldn’t stand the tedium of it. I’ve tried golf but alas it’s too aggravating for me. I have enough stress just living my normal life, and I don’t need a game to add to it. To me, golf is too slow, but not when Tiger plays. I have read that during a tournament when other players are resting, Tiger will take his coach & go to a private spot to practice. Now, that’s passion. Look at sports stars in any sport & the same thing is true. The truly great ones are always the ones who burn with passion for their sport. I always admired Mohammad Ali because he had passion for boxing. He made me want to watch every fight. There was something about his enthusiasm & passion that captivated me.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan is another man who has a passion for his sport that makes him a “star.” All these athletes are people of passion & when you watch them, you feel as though they would play even if they weren’t so handsomely paid.

YOU CAN’T FAKE PASSION!

Nothing is as boring as watching a bunch of tired aging millionaires who are out of steam, running around on a field trying to fake fire when you can just tell their hearts aren’t in it. What do you think of when you hear the name Bill Gates? You probably think of mega- bucks—but not only that, you think of a man possessed by computer software & how to make it accessible to as many millions as possible. They say in school he was always looking out the windows.What comes to mind when you think of Kenneth Copeland? I think of a man who is passionate about seeing God’s people become who they are in Him, & passionately pursuing a positive lifestyle—one full of prosperity.

When I see Bishop T. D. Jakes, I see a man who is passionately trying to tell people that nothing can keep them down, & no matter what has happened to them in their lives, God has a place and a plan for them. When I hear Billy Graham, I hear a man who is passionate about getting souls into the Kingdom of God & to experience God’s full and free forgiveness. Again, all of these men are marked by their passion for their message. They reach out to us and pull us in & we are warmed by their fire.

John 2:17 says that Jesus was literally “eaten up” with zeal. The word “zeal” is another word for passion. It’s defined as “Eagerness & ardent interest in the pursuit of something.” When Jesus went into the temple to run the money changers out, He was not mad as some have supposed. If you read the narrative; it says that He took time & “weaved a whip of cords” before going into the temple. A man having a temper fit doesn’t take the time to do that. No doubt Jesus was disturbed, but the Scripture says it was “his passion,” more literally; He was eaten up with zeal & passion for His Father’s house.

Mel Gibson’s 2004 movie, The Passion of the Christ, was one of the all-time great movies—not only financially, but also emotionally. Everyone who saw it was moved because it so accurately depicted the last hours of Christ’s life & His crucifixion. The story of Christ’s passion has changed people throughout the centuries everywhere it’s been told, & one of the main reasons is its passion. All Jesus’ life was moving Him toward the one thing He came to do & that was to die as a substitute for mankind. This He accomplished with such love & passion that the story has literally turned mankind & the world upside down.

One of the things passion is not, for example, is the temporary surge of joy a person gets when he/she has just been hired for a new job that will give him/her more money. Too often after that kind of job has been taken, the good feeling quickly dissipates when the reality of what that job entails sinks in. I couldn’t count the times I’ve heard people say they hated their jobs so much they got physically ill on Sunday night because they had to go back Monday to a job they hated, even though the pay was excellent. Maybe you left the small job you had because it wasn’t showing the flash you felt you needed, but in truth, it involved something you were passionate about. Now you may have a good-paying job, but the passion isn’t there, & you hate every minute of it. I’m not deprecating good pay or any kind of work, or saying we have to be giddy & in love with every task we do. Gainful employment is necessary, & a person must work to exist.

However, the truly happy person is the one who has found his/her life’s work & are so passionate about it that it really doesn’t seem like work.I heard a baker say one time that he loved his work so much that, to him, it was a romance. He proceeded to say that as long as there was romance in that loaf of bread, he would keep baking bread, but when the romance left, he’d quit. I understood what he meant. Fake zeal may get you through for awhile, but sooner or later, if you’re not doing something you love, the fire will die, & you are left empty. Each of us must find our passion & be true to ourselves, for that is the essence of a “Purpose driven Life.”

PASSION WILL GET YOU THROUGH ADVERSITY

Paul was struck blind at the moment of his conversion. He also went through shipwrecks, snakebites, beatings, false accusations, lies, slanders, abandonment, stoning, & incarceration, but his testimony was that he was “constrained by the love of Christ.” He had a passionate love for the man he met on the road to Damascus. When you read his writings you feel his devotion to his Lord. He had a strong passion to depart and be with Christ, but he also had a deep desire to stay & do the work God had called him to do. Listen to Paul’s passion in II Corinthians 4:17,

For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding & eternal weight of Glory.

Paul also said in 1Cor.8:16,

For I am compelled to preach. Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.

It was the same kind of passion that carried Christ through His sufferings & brought Him through to a glorious resurrection.

I can remember my early days in the ministry when my wife and I lived on very little money, but we were doing what we loved.

Consequently, we never had a sense of being deprived. I look back at some of those times & wonder how we got through it. We had a burning love for the Lord and His work. The fire burned so hot it never entered our minds that we had very little. God always met the need, but sometimes our “want list” wasn’t totally met. The old timers called it “living on love,” & they were right—the love of a newly-married couple who were passionately in love with the Lord & His work.

PASSION WILL GET YOU PAST WHAT PEOPLE THINK AND SAY.

If we are to get anything done in life we must get victory over the opinions of others. When Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he was opposed in almost every possible way. Think about it: there we people who didn’t want that wall rebuilt, at least not by Nehemiah. Like it or not, there will always be those who oppose you, especially if you exert any kind of leadership. Victory was Nehemiah’s because he had such passion to complete the job that he refused to quit.

Listen to what he told his critics in Nehemiah 6:3,

And I sent messengers unto them saying I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease whilst I leave it & come down to you?
This is real passion. People even threatened his life & he was forced to take a sword in one hand & a work tool in the other. But nothing stopped Nehemiah.Think of the three Hebrew boys, as well as Daniel himself in the book of Daniel. They were threatened with death because of their refusal to bow down and worship false Gods. It was their passion for God that caused them to take the stand that we still celebrate thousands of years later. They didn’t care what people thought. Even kings couldn’t force them go against what they knew was right.

In Matthew 9:20 we read about the woman with the issue of blood who was healed when she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. Jarius, the official who could have had her arrested and executed was standing beside Jesus when she reached out and touched Him. This woman had gotten past her fear of man or anything else because she was so passionate about getting to Jesus. Though others were elbowing & falling against Jesus that day, only this woman touched Him with passion, & it caused Jesus to stop. Jesus was moved by her determination & passionate desire to be healed.

YOUR PASSION WILL GET GOD’S ATTENTION!

James 5:17-18, says...

Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, & he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: & it rained not on the earth by the space of three years & six months. And he prayed again &the heaven gave rain, & the earth brought forth her fruit.”

Think of the passion his prayers must have possessed—white hot prayers that split the heavens and brought results. God honors this kind of zealous prayer.

When I was fourteen years old, I went to my preacher dad & announced to him that I was going to be making a change. I was no longer going to be “church orientated” or as “church minded as I had been.” Can you imagine a boy doing this? Especially with the kind of dad I had—he would sucker-punch you in a heart beat. But I knew it would be okay, because I had a good attitude, not disrespectful or anything. Very matter-of-factually I gave him that information. I went on to say, in a very calm manner, that I would still be going to church. I knew I had no choice there, & to be truthful, Dad was an interesting preacher, & he always had the best speakers to come speak for us. Church wasn’t all that awful to me. It was just that I was going to be “thinking of other things.” I had played my guitar at a school assembly & gotten some really good feedback, &, unbeknown st to my folks, I had a plan to go to New York. My big dream was to be on The Arther Godfrey Talent Scouts program.

Don’t ask me how I thought I was going to do it, I just was—at least I thought I was. My dad looked at me strangely when I told him of the coming change, but since I had assured him there would really be no appreciable change in my behavior, what else could he say but, “Well, alright son?” Big deal; right? In a day or two it was time to deliver this message to my mother. You’d have to have known her to understand. My mom was, in some ways, liberated long before women’s lib. Not in a sense of usurping my dad’s authority; she’d have died before trying that, but in other ways, you had to watch her. She indeed was a strong woman, & her favorite phrase was said humorously; “I cover every inch of ground I stand on.” Believe me, she did.I’m not sure, but I believe she originated the kind of spanking that with every stroke she would say a word to let you know why she was beating you. Some of my whippings were like, “You” slap “aren’t” slap “going” slap “to” slap “talk” slap “to me” slap “like” slap “that!” slap, slap, slap.

Frankly, I also used that kind of spankings when I raised my three daughters. I got it from Mom. When I told my “good news” to my mother, she looked at me with what I can only describe as a look of hurt, coupled with sadness, sprinkled with a twinge of aggravation. She said, “Son, you may do that if you choose as long as you do it respectfully & don’t break any of the protocol we expect of you, but,” and then her eyes welled up slightly as she continued, “your mother will be praying for you.”

I said okay, Mom, & went cheerfully on my way, thinking I had just jumped a major hurdle on my way to full independence. Well, I didn’t know what I’d just started. My mom began to miss our family meals. She would put her delicious cooking on the table, sit for a moment, excuse herself & disappear. I began to notice that she was losing weight. Her double chin went away. She never once nagged me, she really had no reason to, for I was still the good boy she’d raised—no real problems. The only problem, & I didn’t see this until years later, was that she’d heard her boy, the boy God had given her, (who almost killed her in childbirth—she was in the hospital for two months) say, “I’m not going to be as enthusiastic anymore about church.” Five months went by.One night I walked down to the corner near our house to get a Coke at the corner store & was gone for only a few minutes. When I walked back into the house, the door to my parents’ bedroom was ajar, & I saw Mom walking the floor, crying & praying quietly. Dad was in the living room, & I went in and sat down and said, “Dad, what’s wrong with Mom?” As if I didn’t know! We talked a little bit, & Dad said, “Son, what you told your mother about your new attitude is killing her.” I again assured him that I wasn’t planning to rebel in a bad way, & I remember Dad saying, “Son, you know your mother; she’s not going to rest until you get your heart right.” I did a little mumbling & retired to my room.

To make a long story short, the next Wednesday night we all went to prayer meeting. I was, as usual, sitting toward the back, trying to look cool & unaffected. Then, as if hit by an object dropping from above my head, I started to weep. I tried to hide it, but the more I did, the more I shook. Can you imagine what that did to my pride, sitting back there trying to be cool & composed, but, instead, shaking & weeping? I don’t remember who was speaking that evening; all I know is that I was begging God to let him quit so I could get out of there. When the altar call was finally given, I got up to run outside. But when I got up to leave the pew, my feet turned toward the altar. I was “busted.” I surprised myself, & I know I surprised the rest of the church as I, for the first time in months, made a beeline for the altar. We often throw terms around like “hitting the altar,” or “grabbing the altar,” but I did all of them & more. My parents immediately saw what was happening and also made a beeline to that altar, one on each side. It didn’t take long for three small puddles of tears to amalgamate into one large puddle on that altar as I wept& prayed my way back to God.

If you’re familiar with my song, Touching Jesus, the second verse was written about that night. “Well, I was bound when I knelt at that old altar, but they said Jesus could meet my every need, & when this prisoner finally touched Jesus, I was free, praise the Lord, free indeed.”

I fully believe that if my mother hadn’t prayed, & prayed passionately & fervently, no doubt I would have followed those desires of my youthful heart, & within a short time been involved in unhealthy pursuits that would have probably spelled my ruin.

The great pastor & trainer of young preachers, Charles Spurgeon said the following to young men aspiring to the ministry,“Don’t enter the ministry if you can help it. If you can be a Farmer, a Doctor, a Lawyer, a news paper publisher a Senator or King, in the name of heaven, do it. Unless of course the Word of the Lord is “fire shut up in your bones.” If you do not have passion, you shall be unhappy in the ministry.”

Let’s use the analogy of charcoal & fire. Charcoal is a good thing to have, but it must wait for the fire to come to it before it can be of any use. Are you, like a piece of charcoal, waiting for someone else’s fire to heat you, or are you burning with your own fire & passion? I believe that passion, zeal, fervency & enthusiasm make the difference in whether our lives truly count. Without passion we compromise & settle for mediocrity.

Think of the vision of the person you really desire to be. Look at your most treasured aspirations & what you in your heart of hearts are passionate about. What is it that you want to accomplish before you die? Look now at the people with whom you are spending your time, the books you are reading, your dominate thoughts, & the way you spend your time. Are your daily actions in line with the person you truly you want to become? Is everything you are involved with in alignment with that passion? Are you willing to make whatever changes necessary to see those dreams come to fruition? If so, start today bringing these things into sync in your life. Are you boiling & burning with passion about anything? Are people being drawn to you to be inspired & to draw energy from your fire?

• Do you have something in your life that fully captures & engages your mind?
• Do you have something in your life that’s giving you the opportunity to make a contribution to God & others?
• Are you involved in an enterprise that is causing you to aim higher & is giving you a shot at excellence in something?
• Are you laboring in an area where you can constantly improve your skills?
• Do you have a feeling that your passion will enable you to leave your own unique mark on this world?
• Have you thought much about how you want to be remembered?
• If someone woke you in the middle of the night & asked you to tell them your passion, how long would it take you to give them a simple answer?

The most important two questions we all must answer in life are,

1) Who will you serve? &

2) Where will you spend eternity?

AFTER THOSE QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED, THERE’S NO MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION THAN;

WHAT IS YOUR PASSION? WHAT DO YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT?

Blessings,


John