Passion: Handle with Care!

 Acts 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

At my church, we just started studying the Gospel of Luke and our pastor has been pointing out how we all have a life defining moment that we should be preparing for so we do well when it comes! He gave examples of several heroes of the faith, including Jesus Christ whose purpose and culmination of His ministry on Earth was to give His life on the cross as payment for our sins. As seen in the verse above, that was His passion, His life defining moment...and guess what, He passed!

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Everything He did before was in preparation for this life defining moment. So what was He like leading up to it? How was His passion communicated?

I mentioned in my previous blog how one of my favorite things about working at GW has been the incredible people I've gotten to meet along the way and the mark they've all left in my life. There have been all sorts of marks though; good, bad and ugly. They're ALL passionate about what they're doing though, the only difference is HOW they're communicating it.

What I've learned from the good - they're balanced, allowing the love of Jesus Christ in them to freely shine through! What I want to learn from the bad and ugly:

• Passion can take a toll on countenances...what is mine shining, joy or stress?
• Passion can take a toll on spouses and children...is my family suffering because of a lack of balance?
• Passion can take a toll on friends and co-workers...have I turned into a one-man show, leaving my friends in the dust or not acting as a team player on the job all for the sake of the cause?
• Passion can take a toll on partnerships because of complete loss of respect for people, especially the "little" people...is my passion causing people to want to partner with me once but NEVER again?
• Passion can cause one to lose sight of the small picture because the big one has become all-consuming...am I in touch with the small AND big pictures of my passion?
• Passion can take a toll on health...am I so consumed that my physical body is not respected anymore?
• Passion can kill the senses...have I lost my ability to be open to new sights, sounds, voices?

Now, I LOVE and believe in passion and LOVE that the only verse in Scripture that mentions the word is referring to what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Our passion is going to cost us, big time. It will hurt, be painful, cause us to suffer. But the point is, Jesus' passion was the cross, His life defining moment. Leading up to it, He communicated it well and in balance, He handled it with care. He drew people TO Him, not away. If they went away, it was because of truth, not because of how He communicated it to them.

Luke 5:15 But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.

My desire is to always maintain an open and teachable heart, so these observations from eleven years of meeting people in my workforce in person, email or phone are not accusations or realizations of me not being guilty of any of these "bad" and "ugly's" too. I had the worst experience of all a few months ago and have been processing it ever since. This is just my final conclusion to the matter of how we communicate our passion and the marks we're leaving because of it. It is a plea to myself and those around me to look to Jesus as our perfect example of how He handled His passion, so we can...

HANDLE OUR PASSION WITH CARE!